Cork Company of the Year Awards: IITC, approaching 100 years in Cork, plans more for customers

It has been one of Cork’s most enduring businesses for nearly a century and with its sterling reputation, who is to say Irish International Trading Corporation won’t be around for another 100 years?

Headquartered at Tramore Road in Cork, with distribution centres in Tivoli and Dublin, IITC is one of Ireland’s leading wholesalers of agricultural and general hardware, steel, wire, plumbing materials, bathroom supplies and accessories.

Established in 1920 in Cork, last year was a memorable one for IITC. In 2016, construction of a new distribution centre in Naas, Co Kildare, on a green field seven-acre site began.

It will be completed in September 2017 and will create 20 additional jobs when fully operational. The company currently employs 100 staff.

IITC’s customers include some of Ireland’s most successful companies but it also supplies independent merchants and family-owned businesses in practically every town and village across Ireland.

There’s no magic formula to its success, it insists — just good old- fashioned customer relations and sensible investment.

Good personal relations with customers and suppliers, as well as experienced staff are a cornerstone for continued successful long-term business, according to its outlook.

According to managing director David Heffernan, throughout its long history and having weathered many economic cycles, IITC always kept its feet on the ground with steady growth and expansion.

A diverse wholesaler serving the agricultural and building sectors along with many more aligned trades, the emergence of a fast-changing economy presents opportunities and challenges which the company is well geared for, he adds.

The company has been so consistent in its mantra that it is the second year running to be recognised by Cork Chamber, something which it is delighted with.

Mr Heffernan added: “To be selected by an organisation as prestigious as the Cork Chamber, which represents the Cork business community, is a great honour.

"IITC has a long history and association with Cork business. Getting to the final is recognition of the commitment and achievements of the excellent people who work for IITC.

"It is also a great motivator to everyone to carry on that tradition of hard work to achieve and exceed the ambitious plans we have for the company.”