Innovative brewers, bakers, and IT solutions makers are among the 31 finalists in this year’s National Enterprise Awards which take place at the Mansion House in Dublin on Thursday, May 23rd. An initiative of the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), the awards celebrate the best small businesses in Ireland.
“The awards are now in their 24th year,” says John Magee, chair of the Network of Local Enterprise Offices. “This one is particularly special as it is the 10th year they have been run under the auspices of the Local Enterprise Offices which replaced the City and County Enterprise Offices. We have invited the past 10 years’ winners to join us on the day.”
The event is very much about acknowledging the importance of small business. “The awards offer an opportunity to recognise the exemplary work being done by LEO clients all over the country,” Magee points out. “It’s a celebration of innovation, ingenuity, and businesses responding to market needs. It’s also an acknowledgement of the support provided by the LEOs. Each of the 31 LEOs runs its own awards competition with the winners going through to the final.”
The variety of the businesses represented at the awards indicate the vibrancy and rude health of Ireland’s small enterprise community. “The finalists span a very wide range with companies in food, beverage, bakery, distillery, film production, furniture, cybersecurity, customer relationship management systems and a lot more besides. A very, very broad range of businesses are represented, and this is a perfect reflection of the diversity of the work carried out by the LEOs around the country.”
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A small sample of the 2024 finalists offers an idea of the quite extraordinary range of businesses involved. Grá Chocolates, the Galway county winner, produces handcrafted chocolates are meticulously hand-painted, transforming each piece into a miniature work of art.
At the other end of the gastronomic spectrum, South Cork winner the Feed Ducks Initiative is an international environmental initiative that partners with government authorities to make duck feeding in public parks more sustainable. They bring their solar powered, contactless, duck food dispensers free of charge to parks for communities to use instead of feeding environmentally damaging alternatives such as bread.
In the energy management and high-tech sustainability space, Westmeath winner Watt Footprint has developed a state of-the-art technology platform that incorporates AI and machine learning along with meter and bill data to enable businesses to gain control over their energy usage and costs.
“The National Enterprise Awards provide a very good snapshot of local enterprise community at any given time. The people who take part have come to their Local Enterprise Office with their ideas, expertise and solutions,” Magee says. “We help them on their journey as they go on to scale and hopefully become high potential start-up (HPSU) companies supported by Enterprise Ireland. We provide a range of supports including technology, training, and finance to help scale, grow their ambitions, and realise their goals.”
He explains the importance of supporting the small business sector. “Around 95 per cent of businesses in Ireland employ fewer than 10 people. The LEOs support small businesses in every community, town and village in Ireland and the employment they create pays a massive social dividend. This is apart from the rates they pay to local authorities and so on. They play a key role in keeping rural communities alive and sustaining local economies. Their revenues get recirculated in the local economies. That’s why the work of the LEOs is so important.”
Those are just the tangible benefits. The founders of these businesses also act as role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs. “Many of the local enterprises supported are solving local issues in the first instance,” says Magee. “We help them scale and think beyond the local to national and international markets. That helps to create additional employment brings more revenue into their local areas. Their importance to the country can’t be overstated. Their success inspires others in the community. Very often people leave these businesses to start up on their own having learned what it takes to succeed. Successful businesses beget other enterprise activity. It also helps with one of the other key elements of the LEOs’ work which is building a local culture of entrepreneurship.”
Solving market needs
Looking ahead to this year’s awards, Magee says the typical characteristics of successful finalists are common to most entrepreneurs. “They are typically defined by a clear understanding of how to solve a market need,” he explains. “They have identified a gap in the market and have established that there is a market in that gap. Crucially, they have a high degree of ambition, understand the opportunity, and think about scaling the business very early on. We offer them a platform to help them grow their business and realise their ambitions.
“The judges are looking for that magic combination of an individual with strong entrepreneurial behaviours, who has spotted a gap in the market, gone for it, invested in it, and has made a success of it by starting a business with potential to scale,” he adds.
The reputational and marketing boost is just one of the benefits to winning a National Enterprise Award. “Winning the county award helps raise awareness of the business in its own locality,” he notes. “But a more subtle benefit is the confidence gained by putting the business forward for the awards in first place. That helps to build communications and other skills. Every successful enterprise is in the sales business, and this helps entrepreneurs to sell their businesses. The peer-to-peer learning opportunities are also very valuable. Finalists get to meet other entrepreneurs and discuss how they are succeeding and overcoming challenges.”
He describes the National Enterprise Awards as the highlight of the small business and enterprise calendar. “It’s always a really exciting day. Recently retired RTÉ news anchor Brian Dobson will be acting as master of ceremonies again this year. He has been a great supporter of the awards over the years. We will also be joined by Minister Peter Burke. It is one of the events that the Local Enterprise Offices are very proud of. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit down with these wonderful local entrepreneurs and hear their stories.”
Read more about all of the finalists at www.LocalEnterprise.ie/Awards.