30 Years of Graft, Grit and Giggles
When Helen Doran first came to Arthur Mallon Foods for her interview, she nearly turned on her heel and walked straight back to England.
What she found wasn’t quite what she’d expected.
“It was a factory in a shed. The roof of it is still there to this day.”
It wasn’t exactly Cadbury’s. But Helen stayed for the conversation with Paddy and found something she hadn’t anticipated.
“There’s something very endearing about this man”, she remembers thinking. She did the interview, went back to England, and thought that was that. Three months later, the phone rang. It was Paddy: the job was hers if she wanted it. She came home and started that November.
That was nearly thirty years ago.
Through Crisis and Fire
Helen spent almost three decades in Quality before moving into her current role as Head of Operations. In that time, she’s seen the kind of challenges that would test any business; from the 2008 dioxin crisis, when every pack of pork across Ireland had to be recalled, to the fire in 2021 that nearly shut the factory for good.
“It happened on a Saturday lunchtime. But by Monday evening, we had a line running again. We even invited our customers in to see it for themselves. The only reason we could reopen so quickly was because the labels hadn’t been damaged by smoke. So, I suppose we were lucky and unlucky all at once.”
That kind of resilience doesn’t come from process alone. It comes from people who care and from a culture where everyone supports each other and pulls in the same direction when it matters most.
The Culture That Keeps People
Ask Helen what’s kept her at Mallon’s for three decades and she won’t talk about progression frameworks or performance reviews. She talks about the people.
“You could be in an important meeting, and Paddy’s phone would ring – he is always available to family and team. It was never, ‘I’m too busy to talk.’ That’s just the kind of man he is.”
That warmth runs through everything. Helen recalls a call from Paddy just two weeks before our conversation: he was passing her office and called in to ask if there were any striped butcher’s aprons in stock. His grandchild had a fancy-dress party coming up, and he was going as a butcher.
It’s a small story, but it says everything. This is a business where the founder asks the Head of Operations about a fancy-dress costume, and nobody thinks twice about it.
The Sandwich Story
After thirty years, Helen still speaks about Paddy and the team with the same fondness and loyalty she had on day one. She smiles as she remembers one last story.
“Paddy and I were coming back from Cork one evening – we left at half five in the morning; it’s now nearly six in the evening. Paddy says, ‘Will we stop and get something to eat?’ He goes into the shop, comes out with a sliced loaf and a packet of ham. Gets back into the car and says, ‘Can you make me a sandwich – the deli’s closed.’”
Thirty years later, Helen’s still laughing – and still here.
When asked to sum up what Mallon’s means to her, Helen doesn’t hesitate.
“Family. Supportive. Progressive.”