The Friday Interview:Trefor Campbell reckons he was a late developer. After his father died, he had to leave grammar school and join the local textile mill Moygashel, then a huge employer with nearly 6,000 people on the books. Eager to stand out, the young Campbell had his pride pricked, soon after joining, by the elderly George, who was in charge of the heckling department.

"If you keep going the way you're going," George told him, "they won't bury you, they'll screw you into the ground because you're so twisted. You can use your nails to crawl up men's backs or you can let them lift you up on their shoulders. I recommend the latter."

With George's advice still ringing in his ears, Campbell began his advance through the ranks, studying textile technology and industrial engineering at night. He ended up working for the finance director and then, to his horror, was sent off to work at a small chicken operation owned by the mill, called Moy Park.

Moy Park was originally a farm that had been bought to secure the water supply for the dyeing operation in the mill. After a local farmers' co-op went bankrupt, it moved into the poultry business. When Campbell arrived, it employed about 50 people.

"I thought it was awful," he says. "I was the fourth generation of my family into the mill at Ballymena and going into the chicken business was a traumatic shock."

He agreed to stay as manager for three years on the understanding that when the time was up, he could get back into textiles. Ten years later, he was still handling chickens. The textile industry in Northern Ireland was beginning its slow decline and the food industry was taking off.

In 1982, when the mill's new owners, Courtalds, sold the textile operation, it decided to keep the chickens.

Campbell was managing director of Moy Park. Two years later, with three other executives, he completed a management buyout. By that stage, the company had grown to a business with turnover of £45 million and 1,450 people on the books.

Moy Park expanded rapidly, selling what farms it owned to the people who operated them. It took over a defunct weaving factory in Craigavon and focused on production. Today, it operates three plants in Northern Ireland, four in England and two in France. All its birds are reared on 350 small family farms based in Northern Ireland.

It is a successful operation with a current turnover of £750 million (€1.1 billion) and, having sold to US giant OSI, Campbell should have few worries. However, it would appear, as he claims himself, he's only getting into his stride. He is a man of many passions and the changing dynamic of the food industry and Ireland's complacency as a food producer is one close to his heart.

"All our plants are biggish because you can't give the consumer cost benefits from smaller plants. For years, the consumer has been taught that everything has to be cheaper. I think, as a consumer myself, we are on the edge of a change. People are realising there's such a thing as too cheap. The consumer is becoming more discerning, everything is moving that bit further up the chain," he says.

While he claims he'd buy all his chickens free-range if the consumer would buy it, competition from overseas producers poses a serious threat.

"Ireland and England are the largest importers of Thai frozen chicken meat. It's defrosted and sold as fresh and there's nothing we can do. It's absolutely outrageous. The island of Ireland is really well-policed as far as manufacturers are concerned, but the amount of testing that's done on stuff that's imported is minimal and I don't think it's properly labelled."

He is convinced Ireland has an opportunity to capitalise on the consumer's growing discernment but, he believes, it would require a shift in thinking. "Everybody has been saying that the big problem in Ireland is the small farm. But it's a big opportunity - specialisation. We should be using our disadvantage to develop specialist breeds, specialist products and then create the marketing and consumer position for that.

"I know nothing about pigs, but I see there is a shortage of free-range pigmeat in the British market. Why don't we have lots of free-range pigs? Whenever I say that, people say the country's too wet, but why don't we set up an experimental farm? If you concentrate on the consumer, the consumer will look after you, it doesn't matter what industry you're in."

Then there's global warming and the drive to create fuel from grain, which has pushed the price of grain up by about 40 per cent. Moy Park uses 14,000 tonnes of grain a week. "If you look at the plants that have been created in the US for bio-diesel and bio-ethanol production, they are currently burning three times the British production of grain. Link that to a major drought in Australia and the fact that China is sucking in so much grain . . . I am convinced that we will reach the point relatively quickly where people in the Third World will die because of this. It's the law of unintentional consequences."

It gets worse. "I think foodstuffs will ultimately be used as a weapon against us in the same way as gas. I really worry about our whole sustainability. We have to make sure that the people on this island can look after themselves, can be protected."

Campbell has highlighted these issues through a variety of platforms, alongside his other passion - illiteracy levels, especially among young people.

Moy Park tests all prospective employees and more than 14 per cent are found to be illiterate. "We don't turn anybody down because of that, but we have a full-time teacher between plants teaching literacy. The biggest problem my recruiters find is that some kids don't have any self worth. That's one of the reasons we've pushed so hard on programmes like the Prince's Trust," he says.

Campbell takes a plastic red folder from his desk and flicks through it, proudly pointing out the projects completed by young people from the plant. "You know, I don't feel older than 25 because I'm surrounded by young people," he says. "I think I was a late developer. The most important thing you do is look after the next generation."

On the Record

Name:Trefor Campbell

Job:Executive chairman and chief executive of Moy Park

Age:63

Family:Married with two children

Career:Left school at 16 to work at Moygashel textile mill. Transferred in 1974 to sister company, poultry producer Moy Park, becoming factory manager and then managing director. In 1984, with three other executives, completed a management buyout. The company was later sold to US company OSI Group.

Something that might surprise:He failed the 11-plus because he was a "lazy little skitter". His parents scrimped to send him to Ballymena Academy where he found a new motivation.

Something you might expect:Like many of his generation in Northern Ireland, generations of his family worked in the textile mills. His great, great, great grandfather had been the painter at Moygashel.

Outside interests:The future - from global warming to illiteracy among teenagers - he's involved in a range of philanthropic initiatives including the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Prince's Trust.