Ivor Queally, chief executive of QK Group South Africa, was named best international entrepreneur at the annual EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EoY) awards on Thursday evening.
Mr Queally runs the South African arm of his family’s agribusiness group, one of the biggest meat processing and cold storage operators in southern Africa.
He is also a director of the wider Irish-based Queally Group, a food industry behemoth, which includes well-known brands like Dawn Meats and Irish Dog Foods.
Founded in 2004, QK Group South Africa operates across a number of different sectors from meat processing, cold storage and warehousing, frozen foods manufacturing, pet food manufacturing and the processing of animal by products.
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The company is also a significant importer of frozen food products from around the world and the second largest manufacturer of pet food in South Africa.
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Speaking to The Irish Times in Cape Town, South Africa earlier this year, where he attended the annual EoY chief executive retreat, Mr Queally said QK Group has had to navigate significant complexities to operate in the country, not least electricity rationing, known as load shedding.
“We had 12 hours a day last year with no electricity,” he said. “You have to make a plan. So, we rolled out lots of generators. We now have 12.5 or 13 megawatts of solar. We’re going to bring that up to 20 megawatts of solar over the next seven, eight months.”
Mr Queally’s win was announced at a gala awards ceremony at the Powerscourt Hotel in Co Wicklow on Thursday evening, marking the EoY programme’s 27th year in Ireland.
The other finalists in the international category of this year’s EoY awards were Rosaleen Hyde and Maxine Hyde, Ballymaloe Foods; David Maguire, BNRG Renewables; Kenneth Fox, Channel Mechanics; Conor Hanley, FIRE1; Gilbert Yates, Healthcare Ireland; Brendan Mee, MTM Engineering; and Jonathan Larbey and Mark Gilmartin, T-Pro.
Former taoiseach Enda Kenny also received a special recognition award at the annual event.
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