Dairygold Wins Cork Company of the Year

Friday, March 10th, 2017

Celine McGrath, Regional Coordinator, BITCI recognises Dairygold’s contribution to its community.

‘Cork Company of the year 2017 is Dairygold’ announced Vodafone’s Leo O’Leary at the Cork Chambers annual dinner in February. How right he was, I thought, as I’d had the privilege of working with Dairygold’s 2 main sites in Cork; Mallow and Mitchelstown, as part of their CSR activity for several years.

Dairygold and St Fanahan’s in Mitchelstown go back a long way, in fact the old part of the company HQ used to house the school before the present one was built in the 1970s. This relationship has grown over the years with hundreds of students benefiting from both the Skills @ Work programme and Mentoring programmes. The students pass the company offices daily but are always surprised by the variety of careers that is being pursued in what is a complex international business.

‘Over the years Dairygold has enriched the educational process of many students at St. Fanahans through the shared experiences and talents of the people delivering the programme. We are grateful that they take the time to do this.’ says Catherine Canavan, Guidance Counsellor at the school, ‘this month they are investing the time to give all 45 TY students an individual interview, it’s a huge confidence boost for the students’.

In Mallow, the students of Davis College got to go to Lombardstown Mill, a very impressive operation bringing the latest in production methods and technology to a traditional industry. The students also learned about careers in purchasing, field sales, lab chemistry, HR and marketing as well as the better known jobs in the retail and production side of the business.

Lorraine Kenny, co-ordinator for the Dairygold Mallow link said:

‘This initiative provides an important link between education and employment in the local area not only from a corporate social responsibility perspective but to encourage and give students an insight in the operations of our organisation. These students today potentially could be leaders in our business tomorrow. Dairygold is proud to support the Business in the Community programme with Davis College, Mallow.”

Congratulations to Dairygold on the well-deserved award!