Glanmore Serves Up Success
John and Jennifer Mooney’s establishment of school meals specialist Glanmore Foods in 2002 was well-timed. Though school meals have been publicly funded by the state since 1914, a new School Meals programme was established in 2003, and since 2005 priority for funding is given to DEIS schools that serve disadvantaged areas.
Per-item state funding for school meals isn’t exorbitant. The rate of payment per child is 75c for a breakfast snack, €1.70 for cold lunch, €2.50 for a hot dinner, and €3.20 for a hot meal. Suppliers, who are selected by individual schools, have to keep their costs down if they are to prosper, and in that regard Glanmore Foods is exemplary.
According to the Department of Social Protection, 1,490 schools out of
a total of 3,970 were availing of school meals funding in the 2021/2022 school year, benefiting c.230,000 children. A March 2023 report on the Schools Meals programme from RSM disclosed that the cost to taxpayers of the scheme has increased from €35m in 2012 to €94m in 2023, and is set to keep escalating.
Operating from Northwest Business Park in Blanchardstown, over two decades John Mooney (64) and his wife Jennifer built up Glanmore Foods to provide school meals to over 400 schools, delivering c.50,000 lunches daily and operating on-site cafeterias in 42 schools. In the year to
June 2022, Glanmore Foods’ turnover was €20m, up 17% on 2019, the prepandemic benchmark.
Operating profit was €2.9m, thanks to tight containment of staff costs. For 164 production and administration staff, average annual pay in 2022 was €28,150, and the cost of the company pension payment to staff was €11,000, for everyone.
In May 2023, minister Heather Humphreys signalled a substantial ramping up for the Hot School Meals programme. From 2024, Humphreys wants hot meals to be rolled out to all primary schools that want them. Should her government colleagues concur, the cost of the free school meals programme is set to explode to a projected €290m by 2028.
It was against this favourable backdrop that foodservices multinational Compass acquired Glanmore Foods in May 2023 for an undisclosed sum. Given Glanmore’s turnover and consistent profitability, the disposal was rewarding for John and Jennifer Mooney, who owned 75% and 25% of the business respectively.
In FY19, Glanmore Foods paid €11.1m to acquire Unit 1 at Stadium Business Park, Ballycoolin. The purchase was financed with €5m borrowings and the company’s own resources. Two months before the Compass deal was finalised, Glanmore declared a dividend of €12m to another company owned by the Mooneys, and that company purchased the 78,000 sq. ft warehouse in Ballycoolin from Glanmore.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) waved through the Compass/Glanmore deal on the basis that their combined school meals market share will not exceed 25%. The CCPC referenced Compass’s direct competitors Aramark, Sodexo, ISS, Gather and Gather and others, as well as school meals specialists Ashdale Catering, Irish School Meals, Carambola, Free Today Catering Wexford, The Lunch Bag, and The School Food Company.