National Enterprise Awards Nominees Revealed for 2015
15th May 2015
The county nominees for this year’s National Enterprise Awards were revealed at a ‘Business Masterclass’ in County Laois yesterday, by the network of Local Enterprise Offices.
The competition is now in its 18th year and has a €20,000 prize fund on offer, aiming to recognise the impressive achievements of small local businesses throughout the country. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton T.D. will be announcing the overall winner on Thursday, June 11th at an awards ceremony at Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
31 nominees were revealed this morning, representing each of the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) across every county in Ireland and small businesses from the world of food, drink, technology and construction dominate this year’s list. However only nine companies are run by women
More than half of the nominees only started their business within the last five years, according to the Chair of the Organising Committee with the Local Enterprise Offices, Adrienne Rodgers. Speaking ahead of the gathering of nominees in County Laois today, Rodgers said: “Over the last number of years, Ireland’s small business community has shown itself to be resilient, innovative and pro-active and through the National Enterprise Awards, we can all celebrate their achievements, putting their successes on the map.”
Previous winners of the National Enterprise Awards have included Irish Yogurts from West Cork, the Hot Irishman Irish Coffee from Carlow, Grouse Recording Studios from Westmeath and DesignPro from Limerick.
Some of the nominees include:
Sligo Martin & Gillian McGeough, Firefly Orthoses (Firefly Orthoses Ltd). Design, manufacture and distribution of Podiatric custom made foot and ankle orthoses www.firefly.ie
Galway City Hilary Foley, Nua Naturals (FOCA Organics Ltd). Health food business specialising in gluten free, vegan and raw foods
Cork West Ingrid De Doncker, E-Quiddity Limited. Providing companies with the best procurement practices
Clare Anne Behan, Aine Knitwear (McConnell Woollen Mills). Indigenous knitwear collections
Cork City Tracey Ryan, Bia Beauty Skincare (Bia Beauty Skincare Ltd, biabeauty.com). Producer of a range of 100% natural, multi-tasking skincare products
Laois Kathleen Irwin, Adora Flax (Adora Flax Co Ltd). On-farm producer of flax oil, which is certified organic.
Offaly Mark Cotter, Emelyn Murray and Liam Holton, Future Ticketing (Future Ticketing Ltd). Online e-Ticketing solutions
Mayo Angela Carney, Harvest Moon Foods. Wholefood artisan food producer
Kilkenny Linda Nolan, MyBio (My Bio Limited). Supplier of research products, technologies and knowledge to the Scientific Research Industry.
(Pictured L-R: Adrienne Rodgers, Local Enterprise Offices; Jackie Kelly, of Kelly’s Mountain Brew in Kildare; and Hilary Foley, Nua Naturals in Galway.)
