Business & Finance 100

Business & Finance Top 100 Companies Index – Part 4

By Business & Finance
10 December 2020

Business & Finance have released the annual Top 100 Index recognising the top companies operating in Ireland in 2020.

Part 1Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The full list is available to download here


Orbidal fka Tenderscout

Orbidal is an end-to-end tender management platform for businesses who compete for public or private sector contracts. The start-up was previously known as Tenderscout but rebranded in early 2019 as part of its US-focused market strategy, where the terminology of ‘bidding’ for contracts is more common. Orbidal has 10 staff in Dublin and raised €1 million from investors last year.


Ornua

Ornua’s mission is to create value for Irish dairy farming families. This is achieved through a clear strategy of creating and capturing value in the market, and returning this value to dairy processing shareholders, and in turn, Irish dairy farmers. Headquartered in Dublin, Ornua has annualised sales of over €2.3 billion and a global team of 2,400 operating from 10 business units worldwide, including 12 production facilities and a sales and marketing team in all four corners of the globe. As Ireland’s largest exporter of premium dairy products to 110 countries, the Group is structured across two divisions: Ornua Foods and Ornua Ingredients. Ornua Foods encompasses a portfolio of world-leading brands including Kerrygold, Dubliner, Pilgrims Choice, Forto and BEO. Ornua Ingredients purchases €1 billion worth of Irish dairy products and is responsible for the sales of dairy ingredients to food manufacturing and foodservice customers across the world. The abolition of dairy quota’s in 2015 has seen Ornua drive exceptional global growth on behalf of Ireland’s dairy sector. 2019 saw a strong performance delivered by Ornua with Group turnover up 11.5% to €2.3 billion, Group EBITDA of €71.8 million, up 18.7%, and Operating Profit of €49.1 million up 21.5%. This performance was achieved against a backdrop of significant global challenges. Last year also saw Kerrygold make history by becoming Ireland’s first billion-euro food brand, selling a record 8.6 million packets globally per week. Kerrygold is the No. 2 butter brand in the US and the No. 1 butter and cheddar brand in Germany.


PM Group

PM Group is an international project delivery company founded by two Irish engineers in 1973, It has offices in the UK, USA, Poland and Singapore overseeing delivery of its services in project management, process design, facility design and construction management for major multinational companies across the Pharmaceutical, Food, Mission Critical, Medtech, Advanced Manufacturing and Energy sectors.


Portwest

Portwest, a family business, founded in 1904. Today it is one of the fastest growing protective wear companies in the world. Headquartered in Westport, Co. Mayo, with over 4,000 staff worldwide. It has sales teams in 130 countries, six factories and eight warehouses to service an ever growing global customer base. Portwest were named Exporter of the Year at the Export Industry Awards 2018.


Primark

Fashion retailer Primark operates over 370 stores in 12 countries — the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, France, Italy, the US and Slovenia. Founded by Arthur Ryan in June 1969, the company’s first store on 47 Mary Street, Dublin, remains operative to this day. The company is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods and is headed up by CEO Paul Marchant, accounting for about half of AB Foods’ revenue and profit. Primark opened five new UK stores this year, including its biggest yet, a 14,800 sq metre retail space over five floors in Birmingham. There are more openings planned in the UK and Europe over the next year, which will include its first store in Poland and four more stores in the US – including in New Jersey, Florida, Chicago and Philadelphia.


Ryanair

Perhaps Ireland’s best-known company, the low-cost airline is the number one International airline, carrying 153 million customers annually and operating over 2,400 flights every day across 2,100 routes. Ryanair flies out of 239 airports in 40 countries. Over the last year Ryanair took a 75% stake in Austrian airline Laudamotion, which opened bases in Austria and Germany, flying Airbus aircraft. Ryanair Sun continued to grow, with five aircraft operating charter flights from Poland to the Mediterranean.


Shorla Pharma

Shorla Pharma is a privately held, Irish based speciality pharmaceutical company with an advanced pipeline of innovative oncology drugs for women’s and paediatric cancers. The company concentrates on indications where existing treatments are limited, in shortage or inadequate for the target population. Shorla’s growing portfolio brings accessible, affordable and life-saving treatments to patients, delivering a major contribution to patient care. Shorla was established by Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan in 2018 and won the overall award at Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition in 2019 and was named Local Enterprise of the year 2020 at The Irish Times Business Awards. Sharon and Orlaith were included on a list of 50 people to watch out for in 2020 by the Irish Times. In June 2020 the company announced the closing of its $8.3m Series A Funding Round led by Seroba Life Sciences.


SISK Group

Founded 159 years ago in Cork, Sisk Group has expanded from local builder to international construction giant. Though it’s primary focus is construction, the group’s portfolio includes Consumer Products, Property, and other investments in Ireland, Europe, and the Middle East. Sisk has recently delivered the Capital Dock Development—a mixed-use development, spread across three apartment blocks—that includes Ireland’s tallest residential building, along with 32,000m2 of commercial space.


Smurfit Kappa Group

A world leader in paper-based packaging with revenue of approximately €9 billion, Smurfit Kappa employs over 46,000 people globally, across 35 countries, and owns multiple recycling and manufacturing operations. Jefferson Smurfit Group became Smurfit Kappa after the 2005 merger with Kappa Packaging. Group CEO Tony Smurfit oversees global operations and in most recent results, for the 9 months ending 30 September 2020. Smurfit Kappa Group delivered EBITDA of €1,125 million, and an EBITDA margin of 17.8%,, demonstrating once again the strength and resilience of the Group.


SSE Airtricity

The wind farm developer, founded over 20 years ago and now employing 750, is Ireland’s market-leading supplier of renewable energy. Its operations span 26 wind farms (including Ireland’s largest – Galway Wind Park), and a number of Power Purchase Agreements with third party wind and solar operators. Since 2008, The company has invested €2.5 billion in low-carbon energy infrastructure in Ireland.


Stafford Group

Helmed by Group CEO, Mark Stafford, the family-run firm has existed since 1891 with activities ranging from sports retail, fuel, and shipping. Its chief subsidiary, Life Style Sports, boasts sales in excess of €100 million. In 2016, the retailer opened a 6,000 square feet flagship store on Dublin’s Grafton Street. In recent years, Mark Stafford, who took the reins in 2004, is said to harbour ambitions to expand Life Styles Sports’ reach into Europe.


Stripe

Stripe was founded by John and Patrick Collision (brothers from Limerick, Ireland). It is a financial technology (FinTech) company based in San Francisco, CA, whose software allows individuals and businesses to make and receive payments online. The Stripe e-commerce platform handles the technical implementation, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure necessary to make quick and secure payment systems for businesses globally — making payment processing online as simple as possible.


Supermac’s

Supermac’s is an Irish fast food restaurant chain first opened in 1978. As of 2019 the chain consists of a total of 118 restaurants spread throughout Ireland, north and south.


Taxamo

Taxamo provides tax technology expertly designed to support global online sales. With Taxamo you can centralize and automate your VAT, GST and US sales tax compliance management and reporting with one global dashboard. Since launch in 2010, we’ve managed billions of ransactions globally. Taxamo is International first – We were founded to manage the complexities of international indirect tax both today and into the future.Our in-house tax team monitors all upcoming tax changes globally and ensures Taxamo technology is up to date at all times. we assist companies with compliant worldwide B2C and B2B sales – using real time frictionless validation. Taxamo handles complex invoicing including e-invoicing, which is essential for modern B2B businesses selling globally. Finally we integrate Foreign Exchange Management – to drive revenue and compliance in every country you do business. Taxamo allows you to sell in any currency and remit your tax in the currency of the relevant jurisdiction.


Tedcastle/ Top Oil

Top Oil Limited of Ireland refines and markets fuel products. The Company offers products such as ethanol, bio-diesel, gas oil, and solid fuels. Top Oil markets its products in Ireland.


Total Produce

A spin-out from Fyffes, chaired by Carl McCann, with a turnover in excess of €3.5 billion, Total Produce is one of the world’s largest fresh produce providers, and operates out of 39 countries while serving many more. Its industry leading vertically integrated supply chain extends across the globe incorporating over 260 facilities including farms, vessels, manufacturing facilities, cold storage warehousing and packhouses.


Transfermate Global Payments

TransferMate—a part of the Taxback Group—is a global B2B payments technology firm, enabling companies to send and receive cross-border payments faster and easier. TransferMate has built one of the largest portfolios of payments licences worldwide, including in 51 US states and territories, to support trading in 162 countries. Leading banks, fintechs and software providers partner with TransferMate to offer an enhanced user experience for their business customers. Using TransferMate’s technology and global banking infrastructure, companies benefit from better exchange rates, greater transparency and improved reconciliation via direct integration into accounting and ERP systems. TransferMate’s mass payments technology is trusted by banks and businesses globally to offer an enhanced user experience for their business customers. The company has created bespoke integrations for banks like ING, AIB and Wells Fargo and software providers such as Coupa, SAP Concur, Tradeshift, Workday etc. The TransferMate API solution broadens the reach of the technology, enabling all businesses to utilise the technology, achieving significant time and financial savings. The years 2018 and 2019 have been pivotal in the growth of TransferMate, solidifying its position as market leaders in global payments. Given the pace of adoption of its payments technology by partners striving to digitalise the payments flow within their software platforms TransferMate has increased its global team by 20% now employing 312 people globally.


UDG Healthcare

UDG Healthcare provides expert outsourced healthcare services specialising in advisory, communications, commercial, clinical and packaging for the pharmaceutical sector via two divisions; Ashfield and Sharp. UDG Healthcare plc has experienced phenomenal growth over the last eight years. During this period, the Group has evolved from being primarily an Irish and UK-based supply chain business for pharmaceutical companies, to a global leader in advisory, communications, commercial and clinical and packaging services for healthcare across two divisions; Ashfield (70% of Group profits) and Sharp (30% of Group profits). The Group’s strategy has been to shift from a low growth, low margin supply chain business, into higher growth and higher margin outsourcing services for pharmaceutical companies. Executing this strategy has seen the Group make 21 acquisitions and four disposals since 2012. Over the past 5 years, Ashfield has generated a 14% operating profit CAGR while Sharp has generated a 15% operating profit CAGR. In 2018, the Group completed the final step in its strategic shift from a distributor for the pharmaceutical industry, to a service provider.


Uniphar

Uniphar is a diversified healthcare services organisation with activities in Ireland, UK, and the Benelux. It was established by Irish community pharmacists over 50 years ago to ensure access to medicines for their patients. Over its first forty years in business, Uniphar grew organically and through merger and acquisition. In 2013, Uniphar bought Cahill May Roberts Ltd and became number two in the Irish pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution market. Since then, the company has gone through a significant period of growth, taking poll position in the Irish market and transforming itself to become a high growth diversified healthcare services company. Uniphar floated on the stock market in July of this year raising €135 m on its initial IPO. The group generated revenue of €1.55 billion, gross profit of €1596m and EBITDA of €46.3m on a pro forma basis, in 2018. This summer the company completed the acquisition of Durbin, a leading specialist medical supplier which has facilities in the UK and United States. This acquisition, which was completed ahead of schedule, ensures that Uniphar is well placed to become a global leader in the provision of product access solutions to speciality pharmaceutical organisations.


WiseTek

A heavyweight in electronic recycling such as data destruction, WiseTek began life in a hotel room, founded by former EMC employee Sean Sheehan. The group now employs 350, specialising in IT asset disposal (ITAD) services and courting clients such as Dell EMC, VCE, and McAfee. In 2017, Wisetek merged its US operations with those of DataKillers. The introduction of GDPR has proved a boon for the company, with the group reporting in October 2018 that overall group turnover had increased 67% on the back of American expansion and increased data security requirements such as GDPR.


Workhuman

Workhuman is a multinational company co-headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts and Dublin, providing cloud-based, human capital management software solutions. In 2020, the company became the latest Irish tech firm to reach unicorn status, with a valuation of $1.2 billion.


Workvivo

Workvivo is an employee communication platform. Think of us as a digital town hall or as a social network optimized for employees that brings the heartbeat, pulse and purpose of the organization alive, while keeping everybody informed. Our mission is to truly engage the organization. We compete against email, old-style intranets, or transactional messaging apps and solve the problem of ensuring the organization has a way of engaging their workforce in the 21st century, and keep its culture and values alive.


Business & Finance Top 100 Companies (alphabetical):

View part one (A-D)

View part two (D-H)

View part three (H-O)

View part four (O-W)