Donal Ryan leaves Clare Marts in good shape
He has directed the development of the Clare Marts Group from annual turnover of £1.5m to more than €50 million, and leaves with the remarkable record of reporting a profit every year for his three and a half decades as General Manager.
Assets of the group have increased from £30,000 in 1969 to more than €6.25m today, of which more than half is in cash and cash investments.
Before taking up the appointment at Ennis in 1969, Donal was the manager at Bandon Mart, part of the Cork Marts Group.
When he joined Clare Marts in 1969, the group had marts at Ennis and Ennistymon, but amalgamated with Scariff Mart in 1970 and with Kilrush Mart in 1978.
He steered the group through two bank strikes in the 1970s, one of which lasted for six months and created huge trading difficulties for the livestock industry.
He also experienced two cattle crisis periods, the collapse of prices in 1974, and the three month closure of marts due to the Department of Agriculture’s Foot and Mouth restrictions in 2001.
He recalls that the most important development for Clare Marts was the decision to relocate in 1988.
The state of the art facilities developed on the green field site at Quin Road is to-day the largest livestock sales centre in the country. The smaller sale centres at Kilrush, Ennistymon and Scariff continue to operate.
The group have also become actively involved in improving livestock breeding in Co Clare, which has become one of the best centres for the production of young store cattle in the south of Ireland.
In recent years, Clare Marts has diversified, building the new NCT centre at Ennis which is now leased to the operators, and constructing six warehouses, all of which are now contributing to the group’s income.
