2013: Alu Cat hit pay dirt in old cars and at first awards
WHEN the country was in the grips of the worst economic recession to grip these shores, there were plenty who battled to hang on to their existing businesses. However, there were a few who were willing to take the leap and open up a business.
That is exactly what two Duhallow men did and into the bargain they won the IRD Duhallow Business of The Year award in the awards’ first year in 2013.
Daniel O’Leary and Daniel O’Keeffe set up Alu Cat in May 2011, which deals with non-ferrous metal recycling. Basically, the two Daniels spotted an opening in the recycling of catalytic converters from cars. These were being recycled in straightforward metal recycling with the rest of an end-of-life vehicle.
However, inside each catalytic converter are tiny traces of precious metal, such as platinum, which is worth more than gold - and it’s these metals the two canny entrepreneurs targeted.
During their interviews with The Corkman at that time, they estimated there were 50-55,000 end-of-life vehicles in Ireland annually, with the same number of catalytic converters.
Alu Cat also expanded, diversified into extracting more metals, and with more work equally so resulted in more employees. It was not only good news for Alu- Cat but also the Duhallow catchment region.
Daniel O’Keeffe told The Corkman that they were “simply thrilled” to have won. “We were just bowled over. We were really thrilled and totally delighted. It’s a great incentive for us to keep going,” he said.
Mr O’Keeffe said he also believed that the awards would truly showcase the high standard of their work.
He greatly thanked IRD Duhallow for the award and heaped a deluge of praise on Louise Bourke of IRD Duhallow who they said, were simply fantastic to them.
Daniel O’Keeffe said that only for IRD Duhallow’s help they would have faced a daunting uphill battle. They got funding of €60,532 from IRD to buy a catalytic cracking machine to streamline the process of opening the catalytic convertors.
“IRD Duhallow have been truly fantastic to us as no one else would step up and give us a hand. We found that once we got their backing and were able to prove that we knew what we were doing, that banks took us more seriously,” said Daniel.
“It is very important to have local support on your doorstep and for people who are in the know regarding business opportunities. I couldn’t speak highly enough about the staff at IRD Duhallow,” he said.