Castlebar company nominated for Small Business Awards

Castlebar company nominated for Small Business Awards


Edwin McGreal
edwinmcgreal@mayonews.ie

If you work hard enough at anything, opportunities will present themselves. That’s the view of Castlebar man John Murray after he and his wife Sheila were one of 37 companies in Ireland, and the only from Mayo, nominated for the Small Firms’ Association Small Business Awards 2013.
Glenisland-based Murrays Recycled Plastic were a finalist in the Manufacturing section and although they didn’t win their section, John Murray admitted they were delighted to even be in the final.
“The winning company has 30 or 40 employees. We’ve only four. We’re definitely boxing above our weight. We’re very happy that we were finalists when there were over 400 entries and only 37 finalists. We must be doing something right,” John Murray told The Mayo News yesterday.
They entered the competition after being encouraged to do so by Patrick Morley, Assistant Manager at AIB, Castlebar. Murrays Recycled Plastic range is ever diversifying, incorporating the likes of garden furniture, decking, gates, fencing and litter bins with private and public sector customers throughout Ireland. Hard work and good service is at the core of their philosophy.
“We’ve built up a very good profile. We’d put a lot of emphasis on following up sales. If there’s a problem the only way to fix it is to do it immediately. If you stay in bed it won’t happen for you but if you get up and go after it, you’ve a chance.
“We would consider ourselves lucky to be doing as well as we are in these times. What we have is a premium product which can be harder to sell nowadays but our products are in demand,” said John.
A member of a well-known family from Boradruma, Castlebar, John worked full-time as a caretaker in Davitt College in Castlebar from 1986 to 1998 when he decided to job-share and set-up a landscaping company. From there they developed into recycled plastic and have concentrated exclusively on it since 2006.
“People would see gates on the Greenway and the stretch of it from Mulranny to Achill is the jewel in the crown for us. We’ve park benches on the new promenade in Enniscrone which are in as good a condition as when we put them in, even though they’d be getting lashed by the sea. We’ve done work for the Titanic memorial park in Lahardane and it is great to see local people have their trust in us and our products,” he concluded.
The finals took place in Trinity College on Thursday last. The Chairman of the Small Firms’ Association is AJ Noonan, a native of Aghagower, Westport.