Brexit forced us to bring manufacturing to Ireland, says Revive Active founder

"The question was, 'Could you not afford to do it?'."

Brexit uncertainty was a driving force in Revive Active's decision to start manufacturing in Ireland, its founder has said. The supplement brand opened a plant in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath earlier this year. Headquartered in Galway, the company had outsourced its manufacturing to Wales but decided to open an Irish facility to safeguard against potential disruption at the hands of Brexit. "We always wanted to bring our manufacturing back to Ireland but with the expansion of the company you're always looking at the figures, you're looking at the cash flow and the investment it would take," said Revive Active founder and Managing Director Daithí O'Connor on this week's episode of All In. "[Before Brexit] we were looking and saying, 'Could we afford to do it, to bring it back to Ireland?'. And then with Brexit, the question was, 'Could you not afford to do it?'. We had to make that decision.

Listen to the full interview here.

"We opened for business in March. Most of the people who are employed there are local... ten new jobs, we're in full production in Mullingar." Revive Active has kept up production in the UK, allowing it to continue selling in to what has become a major market, regardless of Brexit's outcome. Many other Irish companies are taking similar action in the face of this uncertainty, Daithí continued, but not all have taken heed of the warnings. "There's others that have been trading for a long number of years and just said, 'Well if it happens and you can't export to England, we'll just close up shop,' which is very disappointing. "Enterprise Ireland have been saying prepare for the worst since the beginning and there's been roadshows and information for everybody so it'd not as if people weren't warned in advance." Daithí features on this week's episode of All In, JOE's new business show.

All In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Wednesday

Feature image via iStock.