“This is a Cinderella business and an invisible export. It is very hard to touch, and to quantify, and to feel”

JJ Kavanagh & Sons, the country’s largest privately-owned coach company, has made several acquisitions and branched out in a bid to attract new customers, writes Eleanor Rosney

Barely a decade after the first car appeared on Irish roads, JJ Kavanagh decided there was a future in motoring and set up a coach company in Kilkenny. More than 90 years on, the family’s buses are a familiar sight on Irish roads.

Now run by ...