Punch knocks out competition for top award

Invention is second nature to the companies competing in the 2003 All-Island Innovation Awards, writes Joe Humphreys, and is a critical aspect of research and development.

Invention is nothing new to Punch Industries, the family-owned Co Cork company which has been named overall winner of the 2003 All-Island Innovation Awards.

Starting its life as a tea and coffee importer in 1851 under the stewardship of the family's enterprising matriarch Abigail Punch, it has since developed into the world's second largest shoe-care company with an annual turnover of more than €50 million.

Mr George Punch, a nephew of the founder, was among a number of innovators in the firm, developing a shoe polish formula in his garden shed at Glanmire that successfully went into production.

The company has since expanded into the lucrative fabric care market, into which it has introduced several pioneering products, including Keep It White, a concept that won Punch both the large business category award and the €15,000 first prize at a gala ceremony in Belfast on Wednesday night.

Mr Pat McNamee, head of research and development at Punch, said the product, which helped to stop whites going grey in the washing machine, was developed "from content to shelf in about 18 months, which is very quick. Normally a product would take three to four years to bring out."

The item follows on from another Punch brand Colour Catcher, which prevents colours from running in the wash. Despite its new arrival to the market - its patent was only officially granted last week - Keep It White is already outselling its sister product on international markets from the United States to Asia.

"Our strategy is to try to compete with the big boys through innovation. We are always looking to market our products overseas and that has been a successful strategy." Just last year the company, on whose board sit a great grandson and grand nephew of the founder, launched its product range in Australia and New Zealand. All the development work is done at laboratories attached to Punch's factories at Little Island and Kinsale, Co Cork.

Mr McNamee noted: "We are very careful about our trademarks and designs and try to protect ourselves as much as possible."

Ms Mary Cryan, chairwoman of the eight-person judging panel for the Innovation Awards, said protecting a company's invention was one of the most important aspects of research and development. She said other factors the judges were looking out for were "uniqueness of innovation, ability to contribute to further innovation within the organisation, and evidence of commercial exploitation of the innovation for the good of the company and Ireland Inc."

The three other category winners were Northern Ireland companies, two of which had links to a business start-up programme at Queen's University, Belfast.

The younger of the pair, Fusion Antibodies was winning its second successive new technology category award. In 2002, the company, which employs 16 people at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, was honoured for developing therapeutic antibodies to treat cancer and to characterise human genes. This year it won an award for a new process of purifying fusion proteins that, as antigens, produce a strong immune response, thereby yielding antibodies with high specific activity.

Said director Mr Paul Carr, "We hope to be back next year when maybe we'll be the overall winner."

Andar Technology, which also originated at Queen's, won the medium business category for its sensitive imaging camera used for low light microscopy. The company employs 110 people in the traditional unemployment blackspot of west Belfast, and has sister offices in France, Sweden, Japan and the US.

Derry-based company Adronics took the small business prize for the development of satellite communications solutions for the monitoring and control of fixed and mobile assets via the internet. Speaking to The Irish Times afterwards, the company's founder and chairman, Mr Robert Andrews, highlighted perceived obstacles to getting a company off the ground in the North, and particularly in Derry.

"We are respected worldwide for our knowledge of the satellite industry. We have some of the most experienced software and hardware engineers. We are used by satellite companies in the US to analyse the performance of their satellites. We are doing business with some of the biggest names worldwide.

"But, for all that, we find it extremely difficult to develop a high-tech business in Derry," he said.

Each of the four category winners received €5,000.

It is the second year the Innovation Awards have been run on an all-island basis. Sponsored by The Irish Times and BT, they are co-organised by Forfás as part of its Discover Science and Engineering Programme, Invest NI and InterTradeIreland.