Inside Business with Ciaran Hancock

This week’s episode features Patrick Guilbaud, the French chef who brought fine dining to Ireland 44 years ago. Situated beside the Merrion Hotel in central Dublin, Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud continues to thrive with two Michelin stars. Guilbaud moved to Ireland in the early 1980’s when the country was in recession, and it wasn’t always plain sailing. A visit from the sheriff for unpaid debts led to a partnership with successful businessmen Lochlann Quinn and Martin Naughton that helped put the restaurant on a sound financial footing. It also led him to relocate the restaurant to the Merrion Hotel site which was developed by Quinn and Naughton. A move that he considers to be the making of the business.In February Guilbaud received the Distinguished Leader in Business award at the Irish Times Business Awards. In this interview with host Ciarán Hancock he discusses those difficult early days of trading, changes in the Irish restaurant trade over the past four decades, the current challenges facing the sector in terms of cost, and his plans for retirement.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kerrygold is one of the biggest food brands in Ireland and one of our largest exports.Earlier today, its parent company Ornua announced that revenues last year were flat at €3.4 billion but its operating profit and Ebitda were up, helped by efficiencies achieved during the period.But that was last year. Before Donald Trump won the US presidential election and later announced sweeping tariffs on all imported goods.Kerrygold is one of the main Irish food brands facing a hit from Trump’s tariffs, which are currently set at 10 per cent for 90 days but could ultimately rise to 20 per cent.Conor Galvin is chief executive of Ornua and he joined me in studio to discuss the impact the 10 per cent tariff is currently having on Kerrygold sales in US retail.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A full-blown global tariff war in underway.Donald’s Trump’s tariffs took effect last night with the EU due to vote today on a retaliatory list drawn up by the European Commission.The US and China meanwhile have engaged in tit for tat tariffs in the past few days. China has also vowed to fight to the end in the tariff war.What will all this mean for Ireland? What hit will consumers face?And should Ireland now pivot east to protect jobs and secure new investment?To answer these and other questions host Ciarán Hancock Is joined on this week’s episode of Inside Business by Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy, Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times, and Chris Smyth, group CEO at Perennial Freight & president of the France-Ireland Chamber of Commerce.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week data from the CSO showed a decline of 30 per cent in the number of visitors to the country in February, with revenue taking a hit of €88 million during the month.This continued a trend dating back to last September.In this week’s episode of Inside Business, you’ll hear conflicting views from the trade on the current state of the tourism sector here.Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, tells host Ciarán Hancock why he thinks the CSO figures might be overstating the current position within the sector.Whereas Sean Connick, who operates the Dunbrody Famine Ship Experience and the Kennedy Homestead in Co Wexford, is seeing a different picture with visitor numbers to those experiences declining last year with January and February also soft.In addition, he has had to absorb significant increases in their running costs.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first part of this week’s episode of Inside Business, we look at Tesla and the backlash against the vehicle car maker this year because of Elon Musk’s association with Donald Trump.Sales in Europe have slumped while its share price has shed 24 per cent of its value year to date. That amounts to about $800 billion of market value being wiped out.In addition, there have been many protests and reports of Tesla’s being vandalised.To add to the mix, Chinese rivals have also upped their game.Neil Briscoe is a motoring journalist and writes for the Irish Times. He’s been covering Tesla since the get-go and joined host Ciarán Hancock on the line to discuss the issues affecting the company.Also on the show, Eoin Burke Kennedy, economics correspondent of The Irish Times, discusses new data on house prices from Daft.ie after it published its latest quarterly report. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture for anyone seeking to buy a home, with house price pressure reaching an eight-year high and the number of second-hand properties available for sale at lowest level since 2007.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode of Inside Business, we discuss US President Donald Trump’s intention to impose new reciprocal tariff rates on EU countries and elsewhere from April 2nd. What are reciprocal tariffs and how will Ireland be affected? Will we be singled out? What is coming down the line in terms of ‘special tariffs’, and their potential impact on big exports from Ireland to the US? And what possible options are available to Irish companies to soften the blow of all this uncertainty? Gerard Brady, Head of National Policy and Chief Economist at Ibec, joined the podcast to give a timeline of all upcoming tariffs and what they mean.And this week saw the much-anticipated arrival of Amazon.ie, a dedicated Irish platform for the retail behemoth – a move that will be welcomed by most online shoppers in Ireland with the prospect of more product choice and better value. But what about retailers who will have to go toe-to-toe with Amazon here? Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent Conor Pope joined host Cliff Taylor in studio to outline what Irish consumers can expect.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Tony Smurfit, president and CEO of Smurfit WestRock, the biggest paper and packaging group in the world.Last month he was chosen as Irish Times business person of the year for successfully concluding a combination of Smurfit Kappa Group with American company WestRock in a $24 billion deal. The Dublin-based company is now the leading player in its sector.Grandson of the company’s original founding father Jefferson Smurfit, and son of Michael Smurfit who grew the company to become Ireland’s first multinational, Tony has led the business since 2015.During this episode Tony discusses the impact of the WestRock deal on the group over the past nine months, the threat posed by Donald Trump’s tariffs, the special challenges of working for a company where your name is above the door, and his plan to make Smurfit WestRock the best company in the world.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s guest on Inside Business is Leo Crawford, who recently stepped down as the head of BWG Group after nearly 40 years with the business.BWG is a wholesale group at heart that supplies groceries to a large network of shops in Ireland and the southwest of England under a variety of retail brands, including Spar, Eurospar, Mace and Londis.Leo will recall the boom times of the Celtic Tiger years, through a couple of management-led buyouts, to almost losing control of the business post the 2008 crash.BWG ultimately bounced back to become the €2 billion a year business that it is today.He also has some tips for young business leaders and entrepreneurs, you’ll hear him compare retailing in Ireland and the UK and prices on both sides of the Irish sea, and talk about the growing levels of shop lifting and abuse targeted against small retailers and how these might be tackled.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by Dublin publican and Managing Director of Grand Slam Bars, Noel Anderson.The pub group is jointly owned by former Irish rugby internationals Rob Kearney, his brother David, Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien.They own the Bridge bar in Ballsbridge, the Blackrock pub in the Dublin coastal suburb, the Lemon & Duke and Little Lemon in the city centre and its most recent purchase, McSorley’s in Ranelagh.Noel is also a shareholder in the Changing Times Brewery set up by a group of leading Irish publicans to produce a range of local stouts and other beers.Noel’s career in the pub trade began as a teenager and has involved a number of highs and lows. This included allegations of money laundering at one of his former venues, which yielded a financial settlement but only after years of legal wrangling. He talks to me about that extraordinary case, along with the current challenges of running pubs in Ireland and securing insurance against Covid lockdowns just weeks before the pandemic hit here.We also discuss the rising price of a pint and taking on Guinness in the stout market, and why he feels Dublin city centre needs an extra 1000 Gardai on the street to counter anti-social behaviour.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier this month, Red Flag Global, an Irish-based strategic communications firm was acquired by New York-based Ankura Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm.The financial details weren’t revealed but it is understood that the price tag on the deal was €45 million.Founded in 2013 by Karl Brophy, the company was chaired by Gavin O’Reilly, son of Tony O’Reilly and a former chief executive of Independent News & Media.Karl joins host Ciarán Hancock on this episode of the Inside Business podcast to discuss his career that began as a Fine Gael press officer before stints covering politics for the Daily Mirror and the Irish Examiner.He later went to work as a journalist and editor with INM, including a six-year stint editing an edgy tabloid title in South Africa.In January 2011 he was appointed as Director of Corporate Affairs and Content Development at INM, reporting to Gavin O’Reilly.It was a turbulent period in the history of the company, with a well-publicised battle for control of the business between the O’Reilly family and Denis O’Brien, who became a major shareholder.Karl left INM in October 2012, setting up Red Flag just months later.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.