Business Person of the Year Award Winner
Award sponsored by International Association of Mind Coaches
Driving the family business on the road of success
WHILE there can only be one overall Business Person of the Year, this year’s recipient has stressed his accolade is in recognition of his entire family’s efforts.
Darren Connolly, one of the directors of Liam Connolly Road Freight, said he was honoured to have been chosen as this year’s winner, paying tribute his father, mother, and all his family who each play an equal role turning the company into one of Ireland’s leading haulage providers.
“It’s a family business,” he said. “There’s three brothers, my mother and my father. We’re all still active in the business. I feel humbled I’ve been singled out, but it takes us all to make it work.”
Darren’s father Liam, who is still very active in the business and only in his early 60s, started the business in 1981, and it has remained very much a family operation since. That family-centred attitude extends right down through to their employees, whom Mr Connolly said were the greatest asset of their business.
“Fermanagh people have something different. They have a never say never attitude. You go to the big smoke and it’s 9-5, and that’s it. In Fermanagh it’s when we start and when we finished,” he said, stating the company’s staff were the key to their success.
“That’s our strong point of the business over the past ten years. It’s down to hard work, dedicated staff and loyal customers.”
Liam Connolly Road Freight provide logistical solutions to a range of business sectors throughout Ireland and beyond. Having moved to a new premises in Lisnaskea in 2014, the company now occupies a six acre site with state-of-the-art facilities and 113,000 square foot of storage, warehousing and a truck wash. They also have a satellite depot three miles away.
Ideally located within close proximity to the border, the freight company provides logistical solutions to the business sectors throughout Ireland and further afield.
With a fleet of 85 trucksand more than 90 trailers, giving them the capacity for up to 15,000 pellets, the company’s distinctive yellow lorries are a familiar sight on roads around the country. Add to this a recent investment of over £1.5 million in additional vehicles, and it’s safe to say the company is certainly on the road to success.
Mr Connolly had the following advice for anyone wishing to emulate that success: “It’s like anything else, if you want it bad enough you’ll work hard enough for it.
“If you can realise the value of money, which a lot of people don’t realise these days, the chances are if you put your mind to do something you’ll be successful at it. We run our business that every pound spent is a pound out of our own pocket, so we invest it wisely. Nothing is frivolous, everything is wise.”
He added: “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. That’s the main thing about business.”