Goodman business: Larry Goodman-controlled meat plants now slaughter an estimated 22 per cent of the cattle in the Republic, compared to 40 per cent in the late 1980s.
The Ardee, Co Louth, beef baron operates factories in Bandon, Cahir, Nenagh, Waterford, Clones and Rathkeale, and a major burger-processing facility in Ballybay, Co Monaghan.
He also operates rendering plants to dispose of animal processing waste at Cahir and Waterford.
In all, the companies employ just over 1,500 people, and is the sole Irish beef supplier to a number of multiple outlets in the UK.
The Goodman organisation is, however, more focused on its UK operations, where the company accounts for 15 per cent of the annual cattle processing.
In the mid-1990s, Mr Goodman began to refocus his business interests off this island into the UK, where he has been highly successful.
His plants were nominated by the British authorities to kill and destroy all cattle over 30 months in the UK following the 1996 BSE crisis, and this lucrative contract formed the basis for the full recovery of his operations here.
Mr Goodman, who began his career buying hides from a small premises in Dundalk, was the first Irish meatplant operator to pay farmers for their stock on the day of delivery.
Charming on a social level, Mr Goodman is a hard taskmaster, and runs his plant operations on a stand-alone basis, and will not subsidise any plant which loses money from group income.