Northern Ireland

‘Titan of business’ in Northern Ireland Harold Ennis who founded Boxmore International dies

Harold Ennis sits at Murrayfield Six Nations match
Harold Ennis from Hollywood, Co Down, who was present when Ireland won the Grand Slam in 1948, alongside Sophie Ennis, John Ennis, Richard Ennis and Heather Burnside at Murrayfield in March last year for Scotland v Ireland in Round 4 of the Guinness Six Nations Championship PICTURE: James Crombie/Inpho (©INPHO/James Crombie/©INPHO/James Crombie)
By Allan Preston

ONE of Northern Ireland’s most prominent businessmen in recent decades, Harold Ennis who founded the internationally successful Boxmore packaging company, has died.

Mr Ennis from Holywood, who was aged in his 90s, had also served with InterTrade Ireland in the past as vice chairman.

With 19 great-grandchildren, a family notice said he was the much loved and cherished husband to the late Maud as well as father to Mark, Susan, Heather, John and Richard.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, February 23, in St Philip & St James Parish Church at 9.45am, followed by burial in Clandeboye Cemetery.

The family has also requested any donations in lieu of flowers to the Alzheimer’s Society, via johngrayfuneraldirectors.com.

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Before being sold to an American firm in 2000 for £191m, Mr Ennis’ Lisburn-based paper and packaging group Boxmore International had gone from strength to strength, expanding from Northern Ireland to 19 sites across the Republic, France, South Africa and China.

Enjoying his retirement last March, Mr Ennis was pictured with his family at Dublin’s Aviva stadium after the Irish Rugby team’s Six Nations grand slam – something he had first witnessed in 1948.

Last October, Mr Ennis’ legacy was also praised at the Saffron Business Summit event in Queen’s University Belfast.

Paul McErlean, Managing Director of the MCE public relations firm, spoke of Mr Ennis as one of the “titans of business” in Northern Ireland when he started his career.

Along with Martin Naughton, founder of Glen Dimplex, he said: “I have always had great admiration for them, not just because of their commercial success but because they gave something back.

“My experience of them was when they were the first chairman and vice chairman of InterTradeIreland, the cross-border trade body set up after the Good Friday Agreement. They did a superb job and showed real leadership at an important time.”