Smiling and saying 'cheese" at Sheridan"s

'I think that we can now say that we"ve entered a Great Recession,' the International Monetary Fund"s (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn said last March. A few months before Strauss-Kahn came out with his gloomy, if obvious, prognosis, Sheridan"s Cheesemongers opened a new retail outlet close to Carnaross. But this wasn"t just any old shop they opened up to show their wares to the world. For a start, the company had spent a whopping €1 million in converting an old railway station storehouse on the Virginia Road out of Carnaross into a unit that contained offices, warehouse facilities and the retail outlet. It was one of the biggest and boldest steps the company had taken as it continued to consolidate its place as a supplier of a range of cheeses and other foodstuffs to Irish shops, supermarkets and restaurants. Sheridans also export Irish farmhouse cheeses, mainly to the UK. The company has a turnover of €5 million and is run by brothers Kevin and Seamus Sheridan, with up to 65 per cent of the business focused on the wholesale end of the market. Opening up a new retail unit in the midst of a 'Great Recession' might not seem to be the wisest of moves. However, optimism and the willingness to take a risk are just some of the reasons why Sheridans Cheesemongers has become a permanent feature on the local business landscape - and why the company is in a good position to withstand the turbulent economic winds blowing across the land. The origins of the story goes back to the mid-1990s when Kevin and Seamus started selling farmhouse cheeses in a Galway market. The brothers, who are both from Dublin, later joined forces with Fiona Corbett and, together with other stallholders, they founded the Temple Bar Market in the capital. These days the Sheridans have retail outlets in the city of Tribes, as well as Dublin, Waterford and now Carnaross. They employ 13 people in Meath and 20 in their other locations around the country with the million euro conversion of the old station storehouse - which was originally built in the 1860s - one of their more audacious moves. They had originally set up a base in Athboy and were in the market for a place they could call their own. 'We were looking for a place like this for years. We were in Athboy for about seven years before that, where we rented,' Kevin Sheridan explained. 'We didn"t want to go into an industrial estate, we wanted to design a place ourselves and also to have a public element to it. This site came up and it was in a terrible state. We took it apart, put it back together again and added onto it.' The restoration of the old railway building, and the huge level of investment, was a statement of intent. They were here to stay. Another statement was the way Kevin Sheridan and his wife Rachel converted the old stationmaster"s house into a modern dwelling. For their efforts in giving new a lease of life to the ancient, crumbling station storehouse, the Sheridans received an award from An Taisce. Awards There are a few other awards the Sheridans can lay claim to, mainly for their contribution to the Irish food industry. Kevin Sheridan says the company has steadily developed, partly because they put a huge emphasis on obtaining good quality products - and that means going back to the primary producer. They buy cheese, for instance, from small producers scattered about the country; from people who through trial and error have mastered an ancient craft. Surprisingly, Kevin Sheridan pointed out there are relatively few cheese producers in Meath, a county known far and wide for dairying. This is likely to change, he added, as dairy farmers look to supplement their income with global milk prices continuing on a downward spiral. The Sheridans have built up extensive business contacts in Europe, in countries such as Italy and Spain, as they seek to obtain products from efficient sources with a 'passion' for producing the best. If there is one lesson the Sheridans have absorbed, it is the importance of keeping a keen eye on ensuring the quality of their product on the market is the best they can make it. It is a lesson that has not been learned by all those who seek to gain a foothold in the unforgiving world of business. The trick, says Kevin Sheridan, is not to take the eye off the ball. 'We look for taste and quality. We get people coming in with a business plan, we would deal with a lot of start-ups. We usually get two different types - one where they have the business plans but where they forget about the quality of the cheese itself,' explained Kevin. 'Other businesses you find originated from people who have been tipping away in the kitchen for years, developing the cheese. Those are usually the more successful ones, they have a passion for what they are making.' The Sheridans have sought to counteract the worst effects of the recession by now opening on a Saturday and keeping a tight rein on costs. They have not had to resort to redundancies, although there has been a cutback of some hours. Support So how do we give the economy the kind of kick-start it so obviously needs? 'The biggest thing is that people need to start supporting local business,' asserts Kevin Sheridan. 'A lot can be done by supporting local retailers, local food producers, that"s really important. I remember in the early 1980s going shopping with my dad and he would go down to the local supermarket. He would walk down the aisle looking for the Guaranteed Irish symbol; there was that kind of support for the workers. 'At the end of the week, you might save €2.50 or something like that between buying locally or not, but at least your money was going to support local firms rather than into a large multinational, who really don"t care, who are just out for profit,' he adds. Back in his college days, Kevin Sheridan studied art. More by accident than design, he discovered he possessed an entrepreneurial flair. There was no grand design, no master business plan, things just happened and now, 15 years down the line, he is involved in guiding his business through a deep recession. The level of investment in the Carnaross retail outlet is an indication that, no matter how turbulent the going gets, this is one bunch of entrepreneurs who are determined to make it through the tough times and come out the other side smiling. Cheese anyone? Do you have a positive story to tell arising out of the recession? If so, email jimmy@meathchronicle.ie or telephone (046) 907 9619 and tell us about it.