Brian O'Sullivan, founder and owner of Irish packaging group Zeus, and Vicki O'Toole, managing director of JJ O'Toole, at the signing of the deal. Photograph: Don MoloneyZeus Packaging founder Brian O’Sullivan is a man on the move. On Thursday he signed a deal to acquire Limerick-based rival JJ O’Toole for an undisclosed sum.
O’Toole described the sale as a “very emotional decision” but the “time is right and I am very confident the company will continue its successful journey under the robust and global Zeus umbrella”. On Saturday he travels to Australia to visit Zeus’s operations there and will follow that with a trip to New Zealand to visit its local business unit. Zeus has operations in 26 countries and employs 870 staff.This includes four facilities in war-torn Ukraine, with Mr O’Sullivan making a flying visit there eight weeks ago to meet Zeus’s country manager and to show solidarity with his staff.
“We double-paid all our staff to make sure everyone was okay. And now we’re open and we’re trading and we’re at about 65 per cent of prewar levels,” he says, adding that some staff have been relocated to Zeus businesses in other countries, including Ireland. O’Sullivan crossed the border and then drove 20 minutes to Odesa to meet his colleague. “I couldn’t go any further. The tanks were there and that was a line of defence if the Russians came from that side.