Business First Summer 2017 Business First Magazine Summer 2017 | Page 30

FAMILY BUSINESS 2017
Family business: the heartbeat of
our local economy
by Darren McDowell, Partner, Harbinson Mulholland
f the term ‘family business sector’ conjures
up an image of small, perhaps even artisan
enterprises lovingly creating small
bespoke products for a local marketplace you
would be right, but equally you would be
wrong.
Like the year before, this year’s Top 100
Owner Managed and Family Businesses in
Northern Ireland (Top 100) shows family
businesses make up over 70 per cent of the
list! That’s right, more than two thirds of the
most profitable businesses in Northern
Ireland have been founded, managed and/or
owned by families.
The snapshot the Top 100 offers would no
doubt, if extrapolated out, reveal that across
Northern Ireland family firms dominate our
local private sector.
I
When love and business collide
The measurement of success for many
family business extends beyond the profit
margins, it’s an achievement of managing
family relationships as much as business
strategy. Bonds of love and wealth can
become toxic if left unmanaged, but as the
Top 100 testifies those who get it right can
build world class global businesses.
In fact nine of the top ten on the list are
family businesses! As a firm working with
many family businesses we identified an
appetite and a need within the sector that
exte