Company History

Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society ltd.

Considered the founder of the co-op movement, Horace Plunkett established the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society Ltd (the Society) in 1897 to engage in the international commodity markets on behalf of its co-op members. While the initial focus was on seed and fertiliser, the Society's activities soon spanned flour to insecticide. The business even had interests in dry cargo freight and banking for a time.

The years that followed saw the Society become a force in Irish agriculture; in the 1960s entering fishmeal production and in the 1970s producing its own blended fertilizers.

IAWS Group plc

The Society continued to grow such that by 1988 it was in a position to list the majority of its assets on the Dublin Stock Exchange via subsidiary company IAWS Group plc. The Society remained a majority shareholder of IAWS Group plc until 1996.

One Fifty One plc

During this time, the Society functioned as a holding company for the co-op owners’ various assets. In 2003 the Board of the Society decided to utilise the assets available to create an active investment company. The majority of the Society's remaining assets were sold and the capital raised was used to fund One Fifty One Ltd (One51).

One51 was 'spun-off' from the Society in December 2005, and the following year registered as a Public Limited Company. In February 2007, following a share exchange with Society shareholders, One51 became an independent entity.