Founded in 2008 by brothers Michael and Gabriel Hoey ready meal maker Ballymaguire Foods quickly grew into a success story.
That reputation was seriously dented this week. An outbreak of listeriosis forced Ballymaguire to recall 141 products from the shelves of Aldi, Tesco, SuperValu and Centra, among others.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) confirmed on Wednesday that one person had died with listeriosis, as the regulator confirmed there was an “extensive” outbreak.
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Ballymaguire supplies chilled ready meals and soups to supermarkets from its base in Lusk, Co Dublin, which is also home to the Hoey brothers’ Country Crest business, one of the Republic’s biggest fresh vegetable growers.
Company returns show the Hoeys own 51 per cent of Ballymaguire while its managing director, Ed Spelman, holds the balance. It employs 350 people, according to a spokesman.
The brothers told An Coimisiún Pleanála recently that their businesses employ a total of 500 workers, who are paid €26 million a-year, or €1,000 a-week each on average.
The Hoeys’ firms are headquartered on the brothers’ family farm in Lusk, which gave the pair their starting point.
Across 40 years, they have grown that to a group of ventures that supply almost 600 tonnes of vegetables and 500,000 ready meals to supermarkets every week.
The Hoeys also own farms totalling 3,000 acres in counties Dublin, Meath and Kildare. Hoey Agri, the holding company for Country Crest, has assets approaching €10.7 million.
One industry figure familiar with the Hoeys points out that every business they have started “extended naturally” from what they were already doing.
Ballymaguire Foods was the next logical step from the fresh vegetables operation, building on the relationship that Country Crest already had with supermarkets, he said.
The brothers saw opportunities here and in Britain to supply ready meals made from fresh products to supermarket chains to sell mostly under their own brands.
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The Hoeys brought in Spelman, a chef, to run the new business. It has grown consistently since 2008, reaching its first big staging post in 2015, when it announced plans for a new factory and to hire 100 more workers.
In October 2022, while many businesses grappled with inflation and soaring energy costs, Ballymaguire pledged to spend €25 million over five years on a further expansion and on recruiting 200 new staff.
Not everything has gone their way. Fingal County Council recently refused them permission to build an anaerobic digester, which converts farm waste to gas that can be used as fuel, on their site at Lusk. They are appealing that ruling.
Sources say that the brothers have always used new technology and machinery to give themselves an edge over rivals in quality and efficiency. “Michael in particular likes to think outside the box a bit, he’s always interested in new ideas,” said one.
While their various ventures grew, the Hoeys kept themselves out of the limelight. They own their businesses mostly through unlimited companies, allowing them to avoid public scrutiny of their accounts.
“They are very private, very unassuming, they’re definitely not showy,” said one insider. But that person points out that the Hoeys are popular and respected in their community and industry.
“I think it’s fair to say that they will be devastated by what’s happened this week,” said the source, adding that they will be aware too that rebuilding Ballymaguire’s reputation is going to be difficult.
None of Aldi, Musgraves or Tesco, the supermarkets mostly subject to the product recall, would comment this week when asked if they would continue to stock Ballymaguire ready meals, or what action they would expect of the company.
For now, it is understood that they and Ballymaguire are focused on the recall and on taking whatever steps the FSAI demands.
In the meantime, the company has appointed former FSAI chief executive Patrick Wall to lead its response to the crisis, which involves a review and possible overhaul of its production processes. Ballymaguire said it will not restart production until the “relevant authorities are satisfied”.
*This article was amended on July 26th to clarify that a person died with listeriosis
