Seeing the opportunity in every difficulty

ON THE UP Former Mayo Person of the Year Tommy Griffith has seen his PEL businesses expand and grow due to demand for his solar smart bins during the pandemic.  Pic: Henry Wills

Ballindine
Edwin McGreal

This time last year Tommy Griffith was spending every second week out of the country on business meetings.
The CEO of Ballindine-based PEL, who provide a range of waste reduction products including glass bottle crushers for the hospitality sector and solar smart bins, was used to hitting for Knock Airport and clocking up the air miles over and back to the UK and continental Europe.
Now, with Covid-19, all those meetings with clients and prospective clients, are online.
So, instead, he is having online meetings with customers and dealers in the UK and mainland Europe.
It’s more efficient with no travel time involved but can only be a temporary solution, as the former Mayo Person of the Year attests.
“In terms of building a relationship with the customer, you need to sit down with the customer every now and again,” he told The Mayo News. “Long-term you do need to get face to face, you need to see the white of someone’s eyes, build a relationship, allow them to get to know you, know what you’re about,” he added.
The 15-year-old company’s two main products – glass bottle crushers for bars and restaurants and solar smart bins – have went in almost diametrically opposed directions because of Covid-19.  
“The hospitality part of the market, as you can well imagine, is struggling. My heart goes out to the hospitality sector, bars, restaurants. They’ve no way of making money at the moment. We’re lucky in that we’re not totally dependant on the hospitality sector at the moment. We have diversified into a multi-billion euro industry,” he said.

Huge market
That is the solar smart bins, which have become even more in demand during Covid-19 from the likes of local authorities and pharmaceutical companies, as Mr Griffith explains.
“We’ve been working hard on development over the last number of years in relation to our solar smart bins. Our bins compact the rubbish and can tell the customer how many people are using the bin, if the flap or service door is open, the fill level at any given time and the temperature.
“We’ve developed the technology that can do all of that. So from a council’s point of view, we are reducing the amount of collections and the bins are cleaner because they are sealed. Our bins create a cleaner, safer environment. There is opportunity as well so we’ve looked at the pharmaceutical sector, particularly with the amount of PPE they are going through currently,” he said.
Street waste is a huge sector, as Mr Griffith explains.
“If you look at street bins in London, for every 250 people of the population, there is one street bin. That tells you the potential market. If you take Galway city centre and Shop Street ... The council were emptying bins five times a day on Shop Street. We’re now down to every second day and they can log on and see the level at any time. We’ve reduced their collection by ten times. That has a knock on effect in terms of the streets are cleaner, your carbon emissions are reduced, you are not driving up the street five times a day and interfering with the public. It’s creating efficiency.”

Opportunities
The company moved to their new premises in Ballindine in August, having been based in Balla before that. The larger premises has enabled not just expansion but has made social distancing of employees easier.
Along with contracts with local authorities and pharmaceutical companies in Ireland, PEL export to the likes of the UK, Norway, Croatia, Belgium, France, Germany, the Middle East and the USA.
Being positive and open to new markets and new opportunities is crucial for businesses, Mr Griffith says, coming to terms with unexpected challenges like Covid-19.
“Positivity is vital, keeping the head up. It’s not easy. Who would have dreamt 12 months ago a lot of businesses would have closed not of their own doing? That they had to close from a health point of view.
“There will be opportunities again. Business can be a lonely spot when the tide starts turning so it is so important to keep positive and keep people motivated and that people know there are other businesspeople you can talk to and local enterprise boards. There is help there.
“In the present climate there are a lot of businesses and business owners who are having sleepless nights. It’s so uncertain.
“You have to look at opportunity. The world is a big place. Business is always going to have challenges but you’ve to turn a challenge into a business opportunity,” he says.