The Quinn Group notched up sales of 1.3 billion and profits of 325 million last year, with the total drawn from six main business strands.
Financial services Set up in 1995, Quinn Direct has grown dramatically. Profits amounted to 123 million in the first half of 2006. The smart money here is on imminent expansion into continental Europe. This part of the business also includes Quinn-Life, a life assurance business, and a 25 per cent stake in Dublin stockbroker NCB.
Construction supplies For decades the bread and butter of the group, with products ranging from roof tiles to insulation and concrete. It was cement that really made Quinn's name, however, with the establishment of Quinn Cement in 1989 demonstrating the Fermanagh man's appetite for taking on the established big boys such as CRH and Blue Circle. Until a couple of months ago, this division also held a stake in wind energy company Airtricity. Quinn sold out for 69 million in June, almost twice the €35 million he had paid for the 13 per cent holding two years previously.
Hospitality Home to Quinn's trophy investments, although he would presumably argue that they make financial sense. They include Cavan's Slieve Russell Hotel (pictured), Buswells in Dublin and a portfolio of seven pubs including the capital's Messrs Maguire and Q Bar. Last year, Quinn spent £186 million (276 million) on the Belfry golf resort in Warwickshire, England, a four-time host of the Ryder Cup, having been outbid for the Wentworth Club in Surrey. Quinn's interest in such properties is said to have much to do with his strategy of entertaining customers from other parts of the group in facilities he also owns.Quinn also owns three hotels in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. These include the Prague Hilton, currently undergoing a 50 million facelift.
Glass Offers another instance of Quinn's lack of fear in challenging established players. He fired up his first glass bottle plant at Derrylin in his native county of Fermanagh in 1998 and, before long, Dublin-based Irish Glass was out of business. Now the battle between Irish Glass's owner, Ardagh, and Quinn has switched to England, where they are fighting for share of a market worth £600 million (€889 million). Quinn is building a 70,000 sq m container glass manufacturing plant in Cheshire.
Radiators. Hardly the sexiest of products, but again Quinn has shown his determination. In 2004, he took on Tony Mullins, the chief executive of Irish-listed radiator maker Barlo when Mullins was trying to take the company private in a management buyout. Quinn won, paying 84 million for the business and since announcing plans for a new manufacturing plant in Wales.
Plastics A smaller part of the empire, this business makes and supplies plastic sheeting. It used to be part of Barlo.
