Irish News
Gaining a distinct advantage
WHEN IRISH COMPANY INVER WAS TAKEN OVER BY GREENERGY* IN OCTOBER 2017, THE LATTER ACQUIRED A READY-MADE
COMPANY WITH A STATE OF THE ART, FUTURE-PROOFED TERMINAL AT FOYNES IN COUNTY LIMERICK, ADDING TO ITS GROWING
DISTRIBUTION CAPACITY
Greenergy by name – green by nature – 26
years ago this UK-based business had the
foresight to choose greener fuel before it was
fashionable to do so, writes Irish correspondent
Aine Faherty who spoke with Inver’s Chris
O’Callaghan about the acquisition.
Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Greenergy, Inver supplies fuel to nearly every
brand in the market being one of the only
businesses in Ireland to supply every type of
fuel from petrol to home heating to jet fuel.
“Inver’s acquisition has been a very
positive step,” said Inver director, Chris
O’Callaghan
Although the business was already “on
the up” with its own fi rm plans in place to grow
further, Chris says that being part of a global
company has given Inver a distinct advantage
with access to capital that could only have
been dreamt of beforehand.
“This means we can look at opportunities
and other locations, such as Dublin, in which to
diversify,” said Chris.
As with any change, it has not been
without its challenges. For Inver, which had
been supplying fuels in Ireland since 1984,
there has been the transition from being a
relatively small, self-contained privately-owned
business where everyone knows what everyone
else does, to now being part of a global
enterprise employing around 1,000 people
across multiple offi ces.
Thankfully Chris reports that with Inver
having been very successful in its own right,
the transition was almost seamless with no job
losses nor much change for the workforce; in
fact, there is now potential for job creation.
“We have access to a much larger balance
sheet and there are opportunities that we
“WE HAVE ACCESS TO A
MUCH LARGER BALANCE
SHEET AND THERE ARE
OPPORTUNITIES THAT
WE CAN CONSIDER
NOW WITHIN THE IRISH
CONTEXT”
Chris O’Callaghan, who was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award (see page 5) in
recognition of his role in building up Inver Energy’s fuel supply business over nearly 15 years, talks
about the opportunities created following the company’s acquisition by Greenergy last year
can now consider within the Irish context;
such as ones we couldn’t have done before
but now there are no restraints,” said Chris
enthusiastically.
Post the acquisition, Chris not only
continues to be a director of Inver, but is now
also head of branded retail in the UK, dividing
his time with between Inver’s headquarters in
Cork and the UK, ‘a balancing act’ which he is
enjoying.
In the UK, Chris’s role is to develop
Greenergy’s branded retail offer in forecourts,
marketed to dealers as the Esso brand.
In the Republic, there are now over 50
Inver-branded forecourts, mostly in the south
and south-west. Norman Foley opened Inver’s
fi rst branded forecourt in Tralee in 2012,
following this shortly afterwards with another
at Listowel. Inver’s most recent forecourt
development was the upgrade of a company-
owned site at Johnstown Kilkenny.
“Inver forecourts are very competitive in
their offering, focusing on high standards whilst
managing the high volume, low margin nature
of the fuel business.
With regards to Brexit, Chris says that with
“INVER’S ACQUISITION
HAS BEEN A VERY
POSITIVE STEP”
the oil business already being an international
business, it is well used to dealing with the
heavy red tape of border control.
“When we know what Brexit will look like,
we will fall into it,” said Chris.
“There may be some cost to consumers,
but the market will quickly adjust.”
*Although fuel as we know it is still in very
high demand, the reality is that change is
happening globally and traditional fuels like
petrol, diesel and kerosene will be replaced by
greener fuels due to environmental distress.
With this fi rmly in mind, Greenergy, which
supplies low cost fuels from supply locations
throughout the UK and Ireland, also operates
waste-based biodiesel manufacturing facilities
Fuel Oil News | November 2018 17