Addressing the Guild of Agricultural Journalists this week, the new chief executive of Keenan, Robbie Walker, said the company will remain manufacturing in the southeast.

“Absolutely, we are fully committed to Carlow and to Borris,” Walker told the gathered journalists.

He added that there is no plan to scale up production at the site as they are not yet at capacity.

Alltech purchased Keenan out of receivership in May 2016.

Tub technoogy

Walker also addressed Keenan’s entry into the tub market. For years, Keenan Systems did not manufacture the vertical tub feeder and was adamant that its diet feeder was a much superior machine to a tub feeder.

Since the acquisition by Alltech, Keenan has partnered with Italian company Storti to develop a vertical tub feeder. The machine is manufactured by Storti before Keenan branding and its InTouch system are applied to it. There will also be other upgrading of the original Storti machine before it is rolled out to farms.

In response to a question from the Irish Farmers Journal, Walker said the move into the tub area is about generating sales for Keenan Systems.

“Yes, we are giving farmers what they want ... I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Farmers have gotten bigger so they need more capacity.

“Yes, we are chasing sales but we are also getting ourselves back into the innovation game. If we are to bring new products to the market and we are arrogantly saying that we will not engage in what a tub is doing, how the hell are we supposed to come out with the next-generation good thing?”

For more from Robert Walker and Keenan Alltech, see next week's Irish Farmers Journal

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