Each month, we put the spotlight on a Glanbia Ireland employee and for our October newsletter, we spoke to Brenda Ryan, Receptionist in Glanbia Ballyragget

Receptionist in Glanbia Ballyragget Brenda Ryan is fondly recognised companywide as the woman who keeps the show on the road there. She’s the familiar voice on the telephone line, the woman to go to if you want to book a desk or a meeting room and was one of the few who came to work every single day during lockdown to ensure the administrative building in Ballyragget functioned and everything ticked away as normal, in what were anything but normal times.

“I started with Glanbia on a six month contract. That was in August 1979. We were in the old Avonmore House, which was in the building where the Hibernian Hotel now is. We moved to Ballyragget in 1989 and I travel in and out from Kilkenny city ever since.

“This place felt so empty during Covid. We had a one-way system and only three tables in what was in normal times a buzzing canteen filled with people, chatter and laughter. It was so strange to see in what was the most sociable of places.

“Since the restrictions eased a little, people have started to relax a bit more. When things ease even further on October 22, we will adapt to the new normal I feel. The social aspect of work needs to come back. By their nature, Irish people like to get on with life, get back to living. I feel the good times will be back again and we will appreciate them all the more.”

Glanbia is very much home for Brenda and while there have been many new recruits since she first started out, the same company ethos remains; it’s a very friendly, positive and exciting place to work, she says.

“I love my job. I’m a believer in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. I try to be as helpful as I can and I’m always learning. Some of the people who started years ago are still here and it’s great to see the next generation coming through at pace now, bringing new ideas to the workplace.

“There’s never a dull day in Glanbia. You’re always learning a new system or a new way of doing things. It’s what keeps us all going and what excites us and keeps things real for us.

“We’ve seen lots of change in the past 18 months. We’ve had to adapt and change. When people left, you did what you could to adapt here. It’s time to adapt now again. That is all we can do.”