Go back to the 1990s, a time of huge challenge. The town had faced a succession of major employment losses, with 450 jobs lost over 15 years across Lairds Foods, Arigna Mines and Lough Allen Power Station. With no lasting replacement employment emerging, a public meeting was called, and Drumshanbo Community Council CLG was formed to help shape a new future for the town.
The former Lairds building had already been part of Drumshanbo’s food production history. When the food factory finally closed in the 1990s, a further 100 jobs were lost locally. Drumshanbo Community Council CLG never wanted the town to rely on one employer again. Instead, it saw the opportunity to create a new kind of enterprise base for Drumshanbo: one built around multiple food businesses, shared infrastructure and lasting local employment.
A €2,500 feasibility study, supported by Leitrim County Enterprise Board, helped test and shape the multi-tenant production model. It marked the first formal step in moving the idea from community ambition to an investable food enterprise project.
The Food Hub began with local leadership and a belief that Drumshanbo could build its future through food and drink enterprise.
Go back to the 1990s, a time of huge challenge. The town had faced a succession of major employment losses, with 450 jobs lost over 15 years across Lairds Foods, Arigna Mines and Lough Allen Power Station. With no lasting replacement employment emerging, a public meeting was called, and Drumshanbo Community Council CLG was formed to help shape a new future for the town.
The former Lairds building had already been part of Drumshanbo’s food production history. When the food factory finally closed in the 1990s, a further 100 jobs were lost locally. Drumshanbo Community Council CLG never wanted the town to rely on one employer again. Instead, it saw the opportunity to create a new kind of enterprise base for Drumshanbo: one built around multiple food businesses, shared infrastructure and lasting local employment.
A €2,500 feasibility study, supported by Leitrim County Enterprise Board, helped test and shape the multi-tenant production model. It marked the first formal step in moving the idea from community ambition to an investable food enterprise project.
This gave Drumshanbo Community Council CLG the confidence to secure the premises on a 99-year lease, providing the project the security it needed: for the community, for funders, for future tenants and for the generations who would benefit from it.
Setting out an ambitious vision, public and community funding was assembled to develop the facility, with support from Enterprise Ireland , Arigna LEADER, Clár, the International Fund for Ireland, PEACE II, Leitrim County Council and funds under the Department of Community and Rural Development, Musgrave Group, Bank of Ireland, INTERREG and Co-Operation Ireland.
The result is a long-term asset for the town: food-grade infrastructure, enterprise space, training capacity and regional food development rooted in Drumshanbo.
