Staffords to leave its John Street base
September 1979
One of Wexford’s oldest industries is about to zoom inot the twentieth century with a move to a massive new 25,000 sq. ft. ultra modern factory on a three-acre site at Drinagh.
And when the forty-four employees of George Stafford Ltd., of Lower John Street, transfer to the almost half-million-pound building in early November, the move will sever a connection with the area which has existed since 1892, when the firm began as a pub and wholesale grocery under the ownership of the grandfather of the present directors.
A huge expansion programme by the wellknown Wholesale Bottling and Mineral Water manufacturing firm in recent years has made the new premises vital for future progress.
The John Street premises is completely out of date and access to it by heavy vehicles is becoming increasingly more difficult.
The Stafford brothers - Michael, George, and Jim - who run the firm have been planning the move for some time, and work on the factory started earlier this week.
Besides its bottling and manufacturing activities, teh firm is also one of the country’s biggest Wine and Spirit merchants, and the recent introduction of duty-free facilities at Rosslare has meant that the Bonded Warehouse which the family also runs at Lower John Street has expanded dramatically.
A sophisticated development plan for the firm, which the brothers have worked out to cover the next decade, estimates that by 1988, between seventy-five and one hundred people will be employed at the new plant.
And impressively, the new venture has been entirely funded by the firm’s Directors - not a penny of the £450,000 price tag having come from the Industrial Development Authority or any other Government agencies.
Sales Director, Mr. Michael Stafford, said this week that the venture had been only made possible by the whole-hearted co-operation of their employees and the local publicans, hoteliers, and business people in general, whose moral support for the move had been ‘outstanding’. He expressed thanks to them all.