To some, it might seem almost bordering on blasphemy to suggest that a business, just like Jesus, was born in a stable and went on to conquer the world. Yet that is precisely the remarkable story of John F. Concannon and JFC Group — a global manufacturing success that had its unlikely beginnings in a humble cow shed on a farm in Kilconly, North Galway.
It is a story of invention, persistence, family, setbacks, success and, above all, determination.
John Concannon’s life story, told with characteristic honesty in his memoir The Bucket Man, is a heart-warming and occasionally warts-and-all account of how one man’s simple idea grew into a manufacturing enterprise employing hundreds of people and producing an extraordinary stream of innovative products.
The story might easily be reduced to one memorable television appearance. In December 1987, Concannon appeared on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show with the legendary Gay Byrne, demonstrating his invention — a multi-bucket designed to allow farmers to feed three calves simultaneously.
The appearance certainly gave the product national prominence. Gay Byrne’s humour and the bemusement of the studio audience added to the entertainment. But the notion that the television programme created John Concannon’s success misses the real story.
The idea had already been born, quite literally, on the farm.
Working with the practical problems of calf rearing, Concannon devised a simple solution by joining three plastic buckets together. It was an invention born not in a research laboratory or corporate boardroom, but from necessity and a farmer’s instinct to find a better way of doing things.
The bucket germinated and gestated in that modest cow shed. The Late Late Show merely gave it a national stage.
And John Concannon was determined to make the most of it.
Remarkable journey
What followed was a remarkable journey from a triple bucket to a manufacturing group with an international footprint. The humble invention eventually evolved into increasingly sophisticated calf-feeding technology, including the JFC Evolution Automatic Calf Feeder — a revolutionary labour-saving system capable of measuring, mixing and dispensing temperature-controlled milk to large numbers of calves.
From buckets to automation, the evolution is extraordinary.
But the calf-feeding machines represent only one chapter in the JFC story. The group expanded into a huge range of products serving agriculture, construction, civil engineering, drainage, road infrastructure, marine and other specialist industries.
What began as an ingenious solution to a problem on a Galway farm became an international manufacturing operation with facilities and markets extending across Ireland, Britain and continental Europe, while its products have travelled much further afield — from America and Africa to Australia and New Zealand.
It is a classic entrepreneurial story, but The Bucket Man makes clear that it was never simply a case of success following success.
There were setbacks. There were disappointments. There were difficult decisions and personal challenges. Concannon does not airbrush those experiences from his story. Indeed, the frankness of his account — occasionally expressed in language as earthy as the farm where it all began — is part of what makes it so compelling.
Behind the factories, products and commercial achievements was a man whose journey involved his wife Patricia, his family, friends and colleagues, all of whom shared in the highs and lows of building the business.
Philanthropy
And then there is another dimension to the John Concannon story: philanthropy.
Success, in his case, has not simply been measured in products manufactured or markets conquered. He has also used his resources to support people and causes in need. His appearance on RTÉ’s The Secret Millionaire in 2011 brought that side of his character into the homes of viewers across Ireland. The programme revealed a man willing to engage directly with people facing very different circumstances from his own.
His subsequent support for the establishment of Pieta’s suicide and self-harm prevention services in Tuam became another expression of that commitment to his community.
There is something particularly satisfying about the symmetry of the story.
A farmer in a Galway cow shed sees a problem.
He invents a bucket.
The bucket becomes a business.
The business becomes a multinational manufacturing group.
And the man behind it uses some of the rewards of that success to help others.
The journey from Kilconly to international manufacturing might sound improbable, but perhaps that is precisely why it is so inspirational. Concannon’s story demonstrates that innovation does not always begin with sophisticated technology. Sometimes it begins with someone looking at an everyday problem and thinking: There has to be a better way.
John F. Concannon found that better way with three buckets.
More than three decades later, the products bearing the JFC name have travelled across the world, while the company continues to develop new technologies and solutions.
The first bucket may have been born in a stable, but its journey certainly did not end there.
Having conquered much of planet Earth with his remarkable plethora of products, perhaps the only question remaining for John Concannon and JFC Group is whether there are still new worlds to conquer.
The sky, after all, may not be the limit.
And knowing the story of the Bucket Man, neither might the moon.
