First Ireland Spirits, a Laois-based maker of Irish cream liqueurs for supermarkets worldwide, won the top prize yesterday at the Small Firms Association's National Small Business Awards.

The 12-year-old company employs 45 people and produces Feeney's and O'Casey's whiskey cream liqueurs for the export market. First Ireland Spirits, located in the village of Abbeyleix, Co Laois, also makes wine-based cream liqueurs Irish Knights and O'Mara's, as well as two ranges of pre-mixed cocktails.

"What impressed the judges was how First Ireland Spirits had gained competitive advantage in the marketplace by differentiating their liqueurs in the US market by using a wine alcohol base instead of spirits," said Angela Kennedy, the chair of the judging panel.

Founders Joe Lynch and Owen Brady were awarded €15,000 in cash and lifetime membership of the SFA at a black-tie ceremony in the Mansion House, Dublin.

First Ireland Spirits was chosen out of 26 small enterprises in six categories.

James Whelan Butchers, the country's first online butchers, won the Outstanding Small Business Award. That award was won last year by Daft.ie, the online property advertiser founded by two teenage brothers as a school project in 1997.

The Best Trainer Award, a prize sponsored by Fás, was given to travel company i-to-i Ireland. Ian O'Sullivan set up the company in Waterford in 2002 as a franchise of parent company i-to-i, which is owned by his sister and has been operating in the UK for 12 years.

"Ireland has one of the most active entrepreneurial economies in the European Union and we must constantly seek to nourish and promote the spirit of motivation," Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said during the ceremony.