Why this Tipperary butcher sold his five-decade-old family business to Dunnes
Pat Whelan says he wants to develop his family business into a legacy brand.
WHEN DUNNES STORES approached Pat Whelan to buy his business in 2015, the decision to sell wasn’t one he made quickly.
He took over the business, James Whelan Butchers, in the late 1990s, when the butcher shop set up by his parents three decades earlier employed just four people in one Clonmel store.
Now, the business is slowly creeping across Ireland via the link-up with Dunnes. But the deal may not have happened if it wasn’t for another well-known Irish brand’s sale to a US firm.
Before James Whelan’s sale to Dunnes, the butchers was already on the way towards expanding nationwide through a concession model with Avoca.
But Whelan says his view of the partnership changed in 2015 when the retailer was sold to multinational Aramark – which provides everything from food in prisons to cleaning contractors.
“For me there was a material change when Avoca decided to sell,” Whelan says. “I had worked with the founder Simon Pratt and his family for years and established a great working relationship with them.
“I’ve grown up in family business, not a corporate environment. The corporate world is completely different, and I’m not too sure how well I would survive in it. It’s more process-driven and political.”
Whelan was soon approached by Dunnes Stores supremo Margaret Heffernan, who offered to buy his business outright for an undisclosed sum.
He retained the family farm and slaughterhouse under the deal, while Dunnes also acquired two of the Avoca-based concession stands that are still in operation.
“I saw in them another great Irish family. Plus, in that family business environment, it tends to be more nimble and that’s what I grew up with.
“I needed to understand I had access to these people and I could influence them about my own business. I had helped grow this business for 30 years and I wanted to continue that.”
Legacy brand
Since the sale, Whelan has opened up three new butcher shops in Dunnes Stores outlets and invested significantly in hiring new staff – just over a hundred people now work for the business.
However he also has a track record of trying less conventional ideas to make a name for brand, such as selling his products online in the early 2000s.
Back then the internet was still in its infancy, and he remembers the strange looks he got from trying to explain to people the concept of buying meat on the web.
But he has other strategies in play to help him reach his goal of turning James Whelan Butchers into a “legacy brand” in Ireland.
One has been to establish a ‘butchery academy’ under the brand, a move which he feels will also help protect the business against skills shortages in the future.
“I suppose it’s all part of building a legacy brand. The academy is going into its third year and we have 20 people in it.
“The business has taken on 10 people every year, and we’re now working to get it FETAC recognised. But it’s very difficult.
“Peter Mark did it here before by training hairdressers, and we think we might be able to do the same with butchers.”
James Whelan (left)
Approaching the second anniversary of the sale, Whelan insists nothing has changed at the business, which he still heads. He says he now gets to expand the business at a rate he wanted without personal financial risk.
“It has derisked my family and I can now live the dream. I have the resources to do whatever I like and grow it the way I really want to.
“My vision now is for James Whelan Butchers to become a legacy brand and I partnered with Dunnes Stores with that in mind. They have a real estate that spans the country.
“I hope my grandchildren and great-grandchildren look at James Whelan Butchers and think, ‘my great-grandfather set that up’.”
