Mannok chief executive Liam McCaffrey to step down in June

Liam McCaffrey, chief executive of cement, insulation and packaging group Mannok, is to retire on June 30th, the company confirmed on Thursday.

He will be replaced by chief financial officer Dara O’Reilly.

Mr McCaffrey is a former high-ranking executive at Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), once owned by Seán Quinn. Mannok Holdings effectively comprises a number of former Quinn businesses under a new name and with new owners.

A prolonged campaign of intimidation and violence had been directed against former Quinn executives in the Fermanagh-Cavan area, after Seán Quinn lost control of his business empire post the 2008 crash.

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In 2020, Mr Quinn said he felt it “hard to believe” the executives were changing its name to Mannok. He queried the right of his former executives Liam McCaffrey, Kevin Lunney and Dara O’Reilly to drop his name from a business they did not join until 25 years after he formed it in 1973.

Mannok boosted earnings by 74 per cent last year to almost €45 million as inflation eased and efforts to cut carbon emissions began to pay off.

Revenue at the Derrylin, Co Fermanagh-based group dipped 1.8 per cent last year to €311.9 million, largely due to falls in the prices of insulation and plastic packaging.

The group also said its finance director, Brenda Rennick, will succeed Mr O’Reilly while Mr McCaffrey will remain as a non-executive director.

The group said earnings before interest, tax and write-offs grew 74 per cent last year to €44.9 million from €25.8 million in 2023.

Mannok said it had benefited particularly from previous investment in cutting carbon, while inflation eased and margins recovered as it had to absorb less costs.

As its operations demand lots of energy, Mannok prioritises investing in sustainability, for both business and environmental reasons.

It produces cement, concrete, stone used from building from quarries, insulation and packaging for the food industry, selling them mostly in Ireland and Britain.

The business has operations on both sides of the Border.

In March it completed the final commissioning of its “fuel flex” system that cut coal consumption, while further fossil fuel reduction measures are “well advanced”, according to the company.

It also recently completed tendering for its Mannok Energy Valley project that will start producing green hydrogen for use in its trucks, steadily replacing diesel.

The group also signed a memorandum of understanding with Hydrogen Vehicle Systems, the UK’s first hydrogen fuel cell truck manufacturer, to explore adding these trucks to its fleet.

Mannok has been working with state agencies Enterprise Ireland in the Republic and InvestNI in the North, and Irish and UK government departments, on a range of initiatives to aid it in ending the use of fossil fuels.

It invested €12 million in its businesses last year, bringing total capital spending since 2015 to more than €100 million. Mannok plans a similar level of spending this year to 2024.

The group cut debt last year by 30 per cent to €66.8 million.

Mr McCaffrey said the group was pleased to see margins recover after supporting “our customers through several years of oppressive inflationary pressures”.

Mr O’Reilly noted that insulation and plastic packaging prices fell last year, aided by reduced costs.

“We see investment in decarbonisation as a multiyear process to both enhance margins and underpin planned investment of several hundred million euro over the next decade,” he added.

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