Out and About By Andrew Mounsey about time you got started with that now.” That was it. No discussion.
A Visit to
No detail. No costings. He just completely left it with the engineer to
Corby Rock Mill
begin construction of a new mill based on what they had just seen, knowing he was a man to be trusted with such a task. Memories of George, fond as they are, were still very raw as I sat in the board room with my hosts Damien Duffy, manager of the mill, and especially with George’s grandson Mark Quinn, who has taken over the reins. “He was a great man,” says Mark. “Very humble, but there was such an array of people at his funeral who were totally
Monaghan, Ireland
indebted to him. People whose ventures he had helped in many ways
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including sharing his knowledge. He had a quiet way of offering advice which earned him a lot of respect.” Staff, both current and going back
Out & About is sponsored by B2B Nutrition, suppliers of
7£Ff 7¤A
www.b2bnutrition.co.uk
25 years and more formed a guard of honour from his house on the day of the funeral. “For the family, it was one of the most humbling of
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70
sights, looking out and seeing such history,” says Mark. From the day 70
he passed, the mill seemed strangely peaceful; even the lorries driving Mf+>MWU 7£F
My visit to Corby Rock mill in Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, close
up the avenue towards the mill moved slowly as a mark of respect. “It
by the border on the road from Armagh, could not have come at a
was so simple, but it meant a lot,” as George had meant a lot of things
more poignant time. Just two weeks prior to my arrival, the company’s
to a lot of people.
founder, George Quinn, had passed away at the age of 91. George had founded the mill in 1975 and had been intimately involved in all aspects of its subsequent success in a very hands-on manner nearly every day since. He was a man who almost never took a holiday, thinking that if you wanted some time off, you probably weren’t enjoying your work as much as you should be. He was a humble
Left: George Quinn, founder of Corby Rock Mill, and above (l to r)
man who led by example and
Damien Duffy and Mark Quinn
whose strength was an ability to build a team around him who
To Mark he was, “more than a grandfather. He was my best friend.
could share the workload while ensuring his exacting standards were
A phenomenal teacher, he would show me things not just for the here
met. A great example of how he operated comes from the very early
and now, but for the future. He was a forward thinker, always a couple of
days. George had started rearing pullets and subsequently moved into
steps ahead, always pioneering and pushing forward. Good memories
layer production. Corby Rock Eggs grew to become Ireland’s largest
of a great man,” says Mark, then smiling, “but he’ll be giving out about
egg producer but in the mid-1970s, George was not happy with the
being spoken of like this!” Damien agrees: “He’s probably looking down
performance the birds were achieving on their bought-in feed. He
saying, ‘Don’t you have any work to do?’!”
decided that the best way forward was to produce his own, and before
From the outset, George’s focus was on quality. He insisted on the
long he and an engineering colleague were undertaking the task of
best quality equipment to produce the feed and was especially insistent
assessing the best available technologies to do just that. Together,
on using a roller mill to produce mash with a nicely consistent, open
they visited a mill in the North and spent little more than 20 minutes in
structure and a minimum of dust. His passion was hens and eggs;
site. George obviously liked what he had seen. No words on the subject
whatever means of producing feed led to its best presentation for the
were exchanged between the two until they were well into the journey
birds was always going to be top of the list and by the early 1980s, he
home, at which point he turned to his colleague and quietly said, “It’s
was convinced that a rolling mill was the preferred option for producing