Profits rose at Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers, the producer of the famous Cashel Blue cheese, with the company aiming to use the surplus to fund further capital investment.
J & L Grubb Limited, the company behind the brand, recorded profit of more than €960,000 in the 2024 financial year, according to filings made to the Companies Registration Office. This followed a profit of €951,000 in 2023.
A spokesman said the company was “building reserves to allow continued investment” after it made a “huge capital investment” in 2010.
The Cashel Blue brand was created by Louis and Jane Grubb in 1984 and has continued to be made by hand on the same farmland since it was founded. It is based in Fethard, Co Tipperary.
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The brand is now led by a new generation of the family: the founders’ daughter and her husband, Sarah Furno and Sergio Furno.
Speaking to The Irish Times, the spokesman said that 2023 was a “particularly good year” with the company having benefited from a “post-Covid bounce”, which he said benefited the food sector generally.
In 2024, however, a sharp increase in milk prices forced the company to “change its pricing slightly” as farmers were hit by a wetter than expected start to the year, which disrupted dairy volumes and price.
“Every cost has gone up. You name it and everything has gone up,” the spokesman said, with the family business seeking to retain a “simple philosophy” of trying to build the company sustainably in order to be able to “make the next step.”
“We are a sustainable, family-based rural business trying to hire people from the locality. We use locally produced milk, and hire our labour locally as much as possible.”
The majority of the business’ sales are domestic, around 70 per cent, with the balance exported to other markets.
While tariffs may impact the company’s exports to the US, they only have a small portion of their exports exposed to that market. The market turmoil, however, has created “opportunities” for the company as there is interest from new markets in their product as people are “now shy of buying American”, the spokesman said.
Accumulated profits stood at €9.2 million, with more than €500,000 in finished goods in stock by the end of 2024. The company had 22 employees in 2024, down seven from the year prior.
