Established by William (Bill) Quinn in Baltinglass in 1936, the opening advertisement ambitiously pitched the business as “A High-Class Bar, Grocery, Provision, Hardware & Seed Business”. The company counts six agri-stores in their branch network across four counties; Baltinglass and Avoca (County Wicklow), Naas and Athy (County Kildare), Milford (County Carlow) and Geashill (County Offaly). Quinns have for many years been regarded as innovators in the Agricultural Economy and have an experienced team of 12 technical advisors to assist farmers on a range of agricultural activities. With their central grain processing facility in Lewistown, County Kildare processing over 180,000 tonnes of grain annually, Quinns is now one of the largest grain buyers in the country. As well as this, Quinns Feed mill located in Baltinglass produces over 50,000 tonnes of coarse animal feed annually. Last year, their mill achieved the UFAS (Universal Feed Assurance Scheme) award for excellence in this area. Amongst their other accolades are accreditations from Bord Bia, IGAS, ISO 9000 (Quality Management) and ISO 14001 (Environmental Management). In 2016 Quinns of Baltinglass celebrate 80 years serving farmers. Currently employing over 140 people, the Wicklow based Agricultural Merchant has become a key player in the industry. In this landmark year, they are also celebrating winning the Agri-Business Awards “Agricultural Merchant of the Year” title. Businesses were judged on their success, developments and progress made in the last 18 months. William Quinn from Quinns said “We are delighted that in our 80th year we can proudly say we continue to innovate and serve our loyal customer base. We would like to thank all our customers, suppliers and staff over the years for making this possible. We are now a third generation family business and we are delighted that many of our customer base have grown with us over the decades. Many of the young farmers coming through continue to trade and work with us as their grandfathers did”.
