Mike and Pat Glennon, the joint managing directors of Ireland-based sawmiller Glennon Brothers, have won the industry category at this year’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
The brothers were shortlisted for the award in June after growing the business from an annual turnover of €8m in the early 1990s, when they took over from their father, to €70m today.
The company has mills in Longford and Fermoy, and also owns Scottish mills Windymains Timber and Adam Wilson & Sons. Other business includes Dempsey Timber Engineering and Alexanders Timber Design.
The brothers acquired the Fermoy facility from the Smurfit Group in 1998 and invested €25m to make the operation a world-class sawmill.
The acquisition of Windymains in 2005 signalled Glennon Brothers’ intention to become a bigger supplier of forest products in the UK.
The takeover in 2007 of Dempsey marked the company’s move outside timber processing into timber engineering.
