Leo’s Crawford’s farewell to BMG: ‘I’m walking away from a business in great shape’

During the peak of Ireland’s financial crisis, Leo Crawford – then boss of Spar Ireland owner BWG – found himself standing in the office of the then taoiseach Brian Cowen, wondering what was coming next. It was late 2010, and the Troika – the tripartite group made up of technical experts from the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – were in town to bail the country out from financial ruin..