Noel Kelly
Noel Kelly comes from a long line of entrepreneurial dairy farmers, stretching back five generations. The name ’Creva’ is synonymous with quality in the Irish dairy sector, being the herd prefix for the family’s nationally-recognised and award-winning pedigree Holstein Friesian herd. The Creva herd has won the highest awards and sales auction prices in Ireland consistently for more than forty years – a tradition of quality that Noel brings to Creva Agri International.
Noel has been directly involved in the running of the family’s dairy enterprise for many years but from a young age has looked beyond the farm gate to identify business opportunities that combine his farming experience and knowledge with his business acumen and entrepreneurial ambition.
At the age of nineteen, Noel started selling farm IT and hardware for Kingswood Farm Software. This was at a time of explosive growth in the adoption of technology by farmers. Noel grew the number of system users from three to one hundred and twenty in his territory and gained valuable experience in sales and marketing. Progressing his career, Noel then moved to the position of Business Development Manager with EasyFix Rubber Products, an award-winning, rapidly-growing and successful international business. At EasyFix, Noel worked in international sales with responsibility for UK, North America and Europe. In seven years, he grew the export business of the company from 2% of sales to 50% of sales, working with large international distributors in the target markets. He built a strong network of distributors for EasyFix across Europe and USA, was to the fore in designing and executing the company’s marketing, sales and PR strategies and represented EasyFix to win the prestigious AIM International Sales and Marketing award in 2009.
Combining his farming experience, knowledge of successful dairying and his agri – business track record, Noel established Creva Agri International in 2012. His vision for the company was to use his strengths and knowledge to connect leading agri-companies with customers worldwide. Noel has built Creva Agri International through his ability to forge great business partnerships and add value to clients. He is at his happiest at a trade fair, visiting a distributor or giving a webinar from Creva Agri International’s product showroom.
Noel is passionate about developing and maintaining quality business-to-business sales relationships, and in helping companies tell their story globally. Noel brings a huge sense of pride and passion to every interaction. He believes that strong business partnerships are critical for a quality business and personal life.
Alongside Creva, Noel maintains his interest in dairy farming. He is an accomplished dairy farmer, winning third place in the All-Ireland Young Farmer of the Year competition in 2001. He has been at the leading edge of dairy-farming innovation for more than twenty years and has worked on some of the leading dairy farms in the UK and Holland. Today, through his milk production partnership, ‘QuigCreva Dairy Farms’, he has partnered with a full-time farm manager to work his Athenry dairy farm. QuigCreva Dairy Farms uses a New Zealand grass-based model to produce the highest quality milk. Noel has successfully turned his farm asset into a sustainable profit-making enterprise. This has meant a complete restructuring and radical reform of the traditional farming model employed on the farm for more than thirty years. This restructuring led to the development of the milk production partnership in 2010. Today, QuigCreva Dairy Farms milks 600 cows and employs 5 full-time and 4 part-time with recent large-scale investment in a new milking parlor, in preparation for the abolition of milk quotas. Noel oversees the management of the enterprise and is passionate about its success. This continuing involvement in the dairy industry also ensures that Noel is well-placed to really understand the needs and operating environment of the dairy farmer, a critical factor in supporting Creva Agri International client companies in understanding their customers’ needs.
Noel is a graduate of the UCD Smurfit School of Business with an honours Diploma in Sales Management. He is a member of the Marketing Institute of Ireland. Noel’s business and sales abilities have featured in Padraic O Mailles Book “The Midas Power” and he has also contributed to Oisin Brown’s “The Binmans Guide to Selling”. Noel has consulted to a number of businesses including acting as an expert evaluator for Enterprise Ireland on a new major agri-business project in Galway.
Noel takes great pride in where he comes from and is acutely aware of importance of community. He is active in his local community, being a supporter and contributor to a number of local community groups and projects, including the development of the local playground and the installation of a playing pitch in the local primary school. Noel is committed to helping other entrepreneurs and start-ups. He offers his business and sales advice pro-bono at www.scculmentors.com, offering early-stage companies and start-ups advice on International sales and marketing, connecting people to solve business challenges, communication, negotiation, building strong customer relationships, branding and identifying opportunities, patent and IP protection, business law and contracts.
