Cork businesses reflect on 25 years of growth, and look ahead to the next 25

25 years of evolution have paved the way for future plans for Cork city and county, writes Alan Healy, Munster Business Editor

Incremental works in Cork will see major public realm investment in the city centre, with new pathways and public lighting as well as a substantial programme of tree and shrub planting, cycling and pedestrian connectivity improvements, road resurfacing and signalised junction upgrades.

For a quarter of a century, the companies that have had a significant and often lasting impact on commerce in the city have been recognised by Cork Chamber in a fitting manner.

Alan Healy, Munster Business Editor, Irish Examiner.

Looking back on the winners provides a window into the city's recent past offering the opportunity to trace how business and trade in Cork developed. They were a combination of local business success and international firms bringing operations to Cork and taking advantage of our strong, well-educated workforce.

Cork in the late 90s was very much an analogue world. The internet was just a new and growing technology with online shopping a long way off. The city centre island was very much the heart of business in Cork with the South Mall known as Cork and Munster's financial heart.

Since then much has changed both in Cork's skyline and the fabric of the business community itself. The next 25 years will bring further and arguably greater changes. To see how that may happen we cnly need to examine the previous company of the Year award recipients.

The mixture of local and multinational firms gives a sense of the balance that is at the heart of the city's commerce. Along with vibrant and successful indigenous firms, the city, with its busy harbour, has for centuries been an open economy welcoming companies like Ford and Dunlops, Pfizer and Apple, Stryker and Eli Lilly.

To plan for its future Cork is aiming to remain an attractive location for new migrants.

The State's key strategic plan, Ireland 2040 expected a significant increase in population with Cork acting as a counterbalance to the capital. Cork City alone is expected to accommodate population growth in the order of 55% [115,000], which equates to the combined growth of Limerick, Galway, and Waterford cities over the next 25 years.

Having that level of population increase assumes an average annual growth rate of 2.3% over the next quarter venture. By comparison, the average annual rate of growth over the last 24 years was only 0.8%. 

The plan also calls for infrastructure to allow for such growth. Housing remains a pressing social and economic issue.

For Cork, much of the planned infrastructure for the city's future development lies in its docklands pon both sides of the river.

Areas such as Tivoli, the Marina, and Kennedy Quay are earmarked for major redevelopment in the coming decades. The city is also planning a major overhaul of its public transport network and wants to roll out a light rail Luas system between Ballincollig and Mahon.

However, change, no matter how dramatic, is not new to Cork. The city has been in a constant state of redevelopment and renewal for centuries. That is evident in the CotrkChamber awards. The winners over the past 25 years show the vibrant nature of the region's economy, a mixture of traditional and cutting edge, of local and international.

In 1998, the first year of the Cork Chamber awards the food wholesaler Musgrave was named Company of the Year. In that year the company was already more than a century old but had demonstrated its ability in that time to remain a dominant player in the country's grocery market. This was recognised by Cork Chamber as Musgrave was named Company of the Year less than a decade later in 2007. Today the Musgrave Group has annual sales in the billions counting Supervalu, Centra, Daybreak and Mace amongst its brands and it has continued to expand in what is one of the most competitive industries in the world.

In 2003, for the first time, the Chamber recognised a multinational company. It was fitting that this went to Apple, a tech company that established a presence in the city in the early 1980s and remains here today. Today, Apple is the world's most valuable company with a market capitalisation of $2.7 trillion. Throughout its highs and lows, the company has maintained its presence in Cork. That continues today with construction work underway on a further expansion of its campus in Hollyhill. Apple has also embraced the development of Cork's docklands by establishing a presence in the city's North Docks close to Kent Rail Station.

Apple showed in Cork how foreign firms could utilise the city's valuable resources and talented workers. In a similar vein, foreign multinationals such as Pepsi, Eli Lilly and EMC were Company of the Year recipients in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. These firms maintain a vibrant and expanded presence in Cork today. The region's pharma industry, in particular, is world renowned and the presence of many multinationals in recent decades and resulted in the establishment of a range of spin-off companies. 

While many award winners over the past 30 years were key components of Cork's business life, the 2004 winner was a firm that oversaw much of the physical redevelopment of Cork City itself, helping to refresh the built environment while also transforming the city's retail fabric. O'Callaghan Properties led by developer Owen O'Callaghan has left a lasting legacy on Cork's skyline. By the time of his death in 2017, up to 10,000 people were working in buildings, shopping centres, or offices delivered by the builder, while another 6,000 families lived in houses or apartments he made possible. 

When O'Callaghan Properties was named Company of the Year in 2004, the company was already nearing the completion of the Mahon Point Shopping Centre. Fears that the success of the shopping centre would draw retail from the city centre, O'Callaghan returned to the heart of Cork in the following years to redevelop Academy Street and Emmet Place creating Opera Lane.

The company was already responsible for the development of Paul Street and Merchant's Quay shopping centres along with a number of major developments outside Cork including Liffey Valley in Dublin. The company he created continues to this day under the leadership of his son Brian who has overseen the development of Navigation Square at the gateway to Cork's South Docks and who plans to proceed in the coming years with one of the city's largest-ever developments the south Docks on Kennedy Quay.

Creating an ideal platform for business growth

 

The National Transport Authority (NTA), in association with Cork County and City Councils, are developing a Transport Strategy for the Cork Metropolitan Area (CMA). The Strategy will provide a framework for the planning and delivery of transport infrastructure and services in the Cork Metropolitan Area over the next two decades. 

For much of its history, the commerce of Cork has been confined to its city centre. The island formed by the two channels of the river contains much of the city’s retail and financial services. That has changed in recent decades with many firms expanding into the industrial parks and retail centres of suburbs. Cork’s regional towns are also flourishing with businesses.

This expansion will continue into the future. In Cork City, it is very much focused on the Docklands. On the city’s Kennedy Quay and Centre Park Road, developer Brian O’Callaghan is planning a major project that will include offices, apartments, healthcare facilities and retail outlets. Housing developments are also earmarked for other locations in the Marina including the Marquee site.

New bridges are also planned to access the South Docks. This includes a long-mooted Eastern Gateway Bridge and a possible light rail bridge to accommodate a LUAS system.

The design work for the route the light rail system will take is continuing but it is planned to link Ballincollig to Mahon through the key population and business centres including MTU, UCC, CUH, the city centre and the Docklands.

The existing rail network in Cork will also be electrified in parts with new suburban stations developed and new platforms in Kent Station being developed to encourage a switch from cars to public transport.

The City’s North Docks have already seen a significant transformation. The area around Kent Station has been a hive of construction activity over the past decade. New office buildings including Penrose Dock and One Horgan’s Quay have brought a range of new firms to Cork including Varonis, Qualcomm, Green Rebel and Cadence.

The Port of Cork company has already made significant progress in moving its port operations to the lower harbour. Its container terminal in Ringaskiddy is to expand further and will ultimately free up large swathes of Tivoli for redevelopment. Masterplans for the area include a number of housing developments, neighbourhood centres and new railway stations.