Award-winner Hayes makes case for lawyers
FREDA Hayes of the Blarney Group was awarded Lifetime Image Businesswoman of the Year last week and entertained guests with her frank and humorous speech.
Hayes has had more than her fair share of family rows, quitting the original family business in 1993 to set up Meadows and Byrne. This company reunited with Blarney Woollen Mills in 2000, although there was another High Court appearance last year over voting rights.
Hayes didn’t shy away from her past clashes at the glitzy event in the Doubletree Hilton, Burlington Road.
“I have had boardroom coups, high court cases, family fallouts and a lot of stress and sometimes it feels like I have lived two lifetimes. But I also have had great luck, great staff, loyal friends and very well paid solicitors and barristers who were worth every penny,” she quipped.
Hayes recalled how her father Christy Kelleher had set up the business in 1967.
“The risks involved were real and the stakes were very high. All the family savings were used in these ventures and family members were expected to work out of love and loyalty so the overheads were low.”
She was asked to leave school to work in the first shop. “It wasn’t for my business prowess at age 16 that my father chose me. It was out of pure necessity. I came from a family of seven. My three older brothers were already gainfully employed and my younger siblings were too young.
“On our first day in 1967, we took in £14 and we really thought we had it made. However, there were many turbulent years ahead and we had to learn to duck and weave to stay alive.” The breakthrough came in 1975 when they bought the old mill in Blarney and the Blarney Woollen brand was born.
She bemoaned decisions to take on too much debt in the good times and said the company has spent the last number of years working through this.
Hayes had some parting advice for the audience, made up predominantly of businesswomen.
“If you are paranoid about something, there is probably a good reason and you will most likely find, in due course, you were not paranoid enough,” she said.
In other words, watch your back.