Entrepreneurship celebrated

The resilience of local businesses to withstand the Covid-19 pandemic and the Brexit difficulties was acknowledged by the Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, the guest speaker at the Meath Business and Tourism Awards in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan, on Friday night.

A combination of newly formed and long-established companies and businesses, as well as not-for-profit groups, were nominated in the 2021 awards, the first since the 2019 event which preceded the pandemic.

The overall business award was won by Finnegan’s Farm of Balrath, while Loughcrew Estate and Gardens won the overall tourism award.

Opening proceedings, host Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh, the Rath Chairn native presenter of RTE’s ‘Nationwide’, said the rich heritage evident in the soil of the Royal County made the people of Meath exceptional. As the awards ceremony went on, it transpired that many of the winners were involved in the cultivation of that very soil, with farm and food producers making up many of those recognised. Frank Mulrennan, CEO of Celtic Media Group, the Meath Chronicle owners, paid tribute to all the sponsors involved with the newspaper in the awards, and said the newspaper looked forward to moving back into its old Market Square premises in the heart of the town, currently undergoing refurbishment, in the coming months.

Category Winners' Gallery

Meath County Council cathaoirleach, Sean Drew, echoed the minister’s words, highlighting the resilience of the business community, and the supports put in place by the council during the pandemic. But he acknowledged that there were those that didn’t make it through too.

"More companies are choosing to locate in Meath, and we will continue our efforts to promote Meath as a great place to live, work, visit and do business in," he stated in reference to the council’s continuing economic development strategy. Joe English, CEO of the Local Enterprise Office, described how they had one of their busiest years dealing with new set-up firms.

The winners were certainly a mix of the old and the new, from Brogan’s Butchers in Athboy, established 113 years ago, to Greenline Plumbing Services, focussing on renewable energies, and from envelope manufacturer Trimfold, celebrating its 50th anniversary, to Robo Apply Limited, set up in Ballivor two years ago as a manufacturer of customised label printer applications, to found that its services were very quickly required by pharmaceutical companied when the pandemic struck.

And if it is entrepreneurship and flair you are looking for, look no further than Saraden Designs, set up by Ashbourne milliner Sarah O’Rourke, who has been taking the fashion world by storm.

The hard work and dedication of the Wilkinstown Community Centre committee was recognised in the Not-for-Profit category, while Beewise in Kilmessan, the nature trail and educational facility set up by Paddy Gorman and family in Kilmessan won the Best Tourism Experience Award.

Loughcrew Houe and Gardens was the winner of the Responsible Tourism Category. When lockdown struck, Emily Naper wanted to create an outdoor spectacle at the hospitality venue, and brought a Lightscape show to Oldcastle.

Every installation is created from upcycled materials in the estate, harvested from skips, donations, and unwanted materials left behind by guests or from the coffee shop.

Emily was delighted to be also awarded the overall tourism award for her efforts to keep Loughcrew on the road during the pandemic.

The overall business award went to Finnegans Farm of Balrath, who told Blathnaid ni Chofaigh that they "follow the land".

Finnegan’s Farm provides a range of pre-cooked potato and vegetable products, and has grown from strength since its formation by Paul and Joe Finnegan seven years ago.

They now employee 12 people and have a turnover of €2 million. Finnegan’s originally supplied a small number of SuperValu stores in the Meath area, but now supply Dunnes Stores nationwide with their chilled par cooked potato and vegetable products. By the end of 2019, they increased their production six and a half fold to produce an average of 14,000 trays a week. By the end of 2020, the production increased to 60,000 trays a week during peak production.

This year, Finnegans invested in their kitchen facility, extending and upgrading it to a just under 10,000 square feet production unit.

Minister English said that the county was blessed with talent and initiative, which became especially apparent over the last 18 months or more.

He said that it was very noticeable through the Local Enterprise Offices, and when you travelled around, you saw companies of all shapes and sizes, and when you opened a door, you’d never know what you were going to see.

"And these awards recognise your achievements and your excellence in business," he added.

"It was not easy to run a business on top of a pandemic, with the cloud of Brexit too, making your life extremely hard and making it very hard to do what you would normally do, be it selling services or products.

"But many of you turned your businesses around, with new products and new strategies, and turning to online, you changed and adapted to survive, which took lots of drive."

The minister told the businesses that govt worked with the councils, chambers and local enterprise offices to support, and continue to support businesses in different ways at different times, and predicted that the pandemic recovery would be a "jobset recovery" which would enable businesses to remain strong to maintain employment and create new jobs.

Category Winners

Best Green Business

• Greenline Plumbing Services - WINNER

• Decoy Country Cottages

• Rock Farm, Slane

Local Enterprise Office Award

• Nationwide Safety Training Network Ltd.

• Robo Apply Ltd - WINNER

• CalX Instrumentation Services Ltd.

Best Customer Service Award

• Brogans Butchers - WINNER

• Mother Hubbards Childcare

• Our Salon

Business Resilience Award

• Causey Farm

• Trimfold Envelopes - WINNER

• Dunshaughlin Dance

Emerging Business Award

• Martinstown Lodge

• Navan Adventure Centre

• Saraden Designs - WINNER

Best Family Business Award

• Topline Murtaghs

• The Snailbox

• Finnegan’s Farm - WINNER

Best Not for Profit Organisation

• Core Ireland

• Dunderry Fair

• Wilkinstown Comm Centre - WINNER

Responsible Tourism Award

• Loughcrew Estate & Gardens - WINNER

• Decoy Country Cottages

• Tayto Park

Best Tourism Experience Award

• Beewise - WINNER

• Custom Irish Tourism

• Sofft Productions

For full coverage and photo galleries see this week's paper