Company History

The QUINN group has its strategic centre located along the Cavan/Fermanagh border in Ireland with its founder, Mr Sean Quinn, as its Chairman and Managing Director.

The origins of the Group lie in the supply of sand and gravel to local builders and farmers. Founded in 1973, it has been transformed over the years from a small local enterprise into a multi national organisation.

Throughout the 1970's, the company developed its product range with the quarrying of aggregates, the production of readymix concrete, the manufacture of concrete blocks and the establishment of a concrete products manufacturing plant in Williamstown, County Galway.

With this successful base as its foundation, the company expanded into the national market in the 1980's with the establishment of a rooftile factory, a prestressed concrete factory and a 0.5 million tonnes per annum cement works at Derrylin. This was further complemented in 2000 with the opening of the Group's second cement works at Ballyconnell, County Cavan. This plant has a capacity to produce in excess of 1.3 million tonnes per annum.

The 1990's saw further expansion of the Group with additional manufacturing operations comprising QUINN lite Pac Ltd., a leading manufacturer of polystyrene insulation products; QUINN tarmac, a bituminous tar manufacturing plant; QUINN lite, an aircrete block manufacturing plant; and QUINN glass Ltd. which operates two of the most modern container glass plants in the world.

Other related operations include two windfarms at Slieve Rushen (54MW), Derrylin, Co. Fermanagh and Snugborough (13.5 MW), near Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan with a generation capability of 67.5 MW, a modern highly engineered landfill site in County Armagh with also the capability for electricity generation. The group is also in the planning stages of a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plant in Toomes, Co. Louth. The 450MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power plant will use natural gas to fuel the generation of electrical energy.

The Group's insulation division was further complimented by the establishment of QUINN therm which produces polyurethane insulation products.

Hand in hand with the development of its manufacturing operations, the Group expanded its property portfolio during the 1990's and 2000's. This now includes:

Most recent acquisitions have focused on central and Eastern Europe and these include:

The public house division includes seven of the top public houses in Dublin - The Cat & Cage, Quinns of Drumcondra, The Shamrock Lodge, The Q-Bar, The Barge, Messrs Maguire - as well as Quinns Bar, Cambridge.

The Group's general insurance company, QUINN-direct Insurance, commenced trading throughout Ireland in January 1996 from its headquarters in Cavan Town. It also has branch offices in O'Connell Street, Dublin, Cork, Meath and Fermanagh, with Service Centers located at Blanchardstown, Dublin and Manchester, England and has quickly become a major player in the insurance business in Ireland and United Kingdom. With the success of its general insurance business behind it, the Group expanded into Pensions and Investments with the establishment of QUINN-life in 2000, and in 2007 through the acquisition of BUPA Ireland, now operates in the Healthcare Sector as QUINN healthcare. QUINN-Insurance is now clearly positioned as No.2 in the Irish Insurance Market.

In 2008 Quinn Insurance invested 25m in a new office facility in Cork City providing 500 new jobs over four years and significantly expanding its in Ireland.

In 2004 the Group acquired Barlo Group plc. Leading on from this acquisition several new divisions were formed within the Group:

  • QUINN radiators, one of Europes leading producers of domestic and specification radiators.
  • QUINN plastics, Europe's largests manufacture of extruded transparent sheet and coloured sheet plastics.
  • QUINN packaging, which produces packaging and containers for the food industry.

2005 saw the development of a new radiator production facility in Newport, South Wales. This major investment has created the most modern and efficient radiator plant in the world, with an output capacity of 4 million radiators per annum.

QUINN packaging completed a brand new 19,000sq. m. facility in 2006 at Quinn Industrial Park, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan, close to Group HQ. This new facility is focussed on servicing both the rigid and flexible packaging industries in Ireland and the UK.

Within the plastics sector the Group is now embarking on a major expansion programme with the establishment of a Methylmethacrylate (MMA) production facility through its subsidiary QUINN chemicals GmbH in Leuna near Leipzig, Germany.