Ballyhaunis memories of Sher Rafique
Mohammed Sher Rafique as an early executive.
Stories of Ballyhaunis business life in the 1980s and 1990s were shared at a recent tribute to the late Mohammed Sher Rafique organised by Ballyhaunis Community Council as part of its Heritage Week events.
A slideshow and oral presentation by Mr Rafique’s son Arfan at the Community Hall included images from the meat factories built across Ireland and Britain by Mr Rafique after he started his business in Ballyhaunis in the late 1970s.
From modest beginnings in Pakistan, Mr Rafique went to university in Britain and later moved to Ballyhaunis from London after a career at the Lonrho conglomerate run by tycoon Walter ‘Tiny’ Rowland.
He saw an opportunity in the emerging single European market for the export of meat from Ireland, explained Arfan. He also recalled for the large attendance at the hall visits to the giant Rungis wholesale meat market on the outskirts of Paris, a destination for trucks of lamb from the United Meatpackers' plant in Ballyhaunis.
Mr Rafique brought to his Ballyhaunis plants' abattoir technology he researched during visits to New Zealand and the United States, said Arfan. His ability to tap global markets for meat processed according to halal standards, meanwhile, propelled his company through a period of intense growth, with plants opening in multiple locations in Ireland and in British towns like Lockerbie.
One photograph shown during the evening was a cover from the ‘Business and Finance’ magazine titled ‘The Other Meat Mogul: Larry Goodman’s only rival’ with a photo of Mr Rafique standing at Sligo Port, used for some of his meat shipments.
Businesspeople from the town who shared their reminiscences on the evening included John Dillon, proprietor of the eponymous business on the Square who recalled the surge of orders to his and other local businesses after the arrival of the ambitious Pakistani businessman to town.
“I remember he came and said he wanted materials for building an office and when I went up to see him there he was with a galvinised roof and his telex machine set up on a door which was his desk.”
Rafique, stressed Dillon, worked hard, sourced goods locally and “everyone got paid”.
A humorous story recalled by Gerry McGarry, who worked as an engineer for Mr Rafique, was as follows: a reporter after interviewing the meat processing boss about his expansion plans then proceeded to ask about his religion, having organised a photograph of Rafiq and McGarry with the factory expansion plans.
“Mr Rafique said he was going to build a mosque. And the following Sunday there was a photo of us holding the building plans and a headline on the front page of the that read ‘And Now a Mosque, Seven Miles from Knock.'
"It was a testament to the local regard in which the businessman was held that the issue was never raised to me, said McGarry.
Local menswear retailer Eddie Murphy, meanwhile, recalled selling suits to various clients of United Meatpackers, including members of the Iraqi military, sent to Ballyhaunis by Saddam Hussein’s government to source meat for his troops.
The work ethic and drive described by Mr Dillon was recalled also by former employees, some of whom came from counties Galway and Roscommon for the event. One described seeing men from the factory line, in their white coats, diverted to a construction site after the daily kill as Rafique rushed to get a new section of the factory completed.
The demise of the United Meatpackers group in the early 1990s was recalled by former politician Jim Higgins who described three helicopters arriving in Ballyhaunis on a Sunday afternoon, carrying the chief executives of several meat companies including the Goodman group, seeking to purchase the business.
Higgins said he feared that had the company fallen into the hands of one of two beef barons he named “they would have mothballed the factories and the jobs in Ballyhaunis would have been lost”. A receiver appointed by the Deloitte & Touche group sold the entity as a going concern to the Irish Country Meats division of the Kilkenny-based Avonmore Group. Today the plant is owned by the Dawn Meats group.
