InterTradeIreland, the agency charged with supporting economic co-operation across the island of Ireland, has just published its new three-year corporate strategy. At its core are the strategic priorities of leading all-island economic collaboration, driving all-island trade, accelerating enterprise growth, and boosting indigenous business competitiveness across the island.
“Our new strategy builds on a foundation of success,” says InterTradeIreland chief executive Margaret Hearty. “We have supported thousands of businesses in every county on this island by connecting them to new opportunities to grow cross-Border exports, embrace innovation and raise investment. Our new strategy has been developed to support the delivery of the shared economic policy priorities of both jurisdictions. It’s about supporting indigenous SMEs to export, building their innovation capability through cross-Border collaboration, and driving enterprise growth.”
The strategy is timely, coming on the back of new figures that show cross-Border trade at a record level. “Trade hit an all-time high of €17 billion in 2024, up from €15 billion the previous year,” says Hearty. “This growth shows that, in spite of the geopolitical turmoil that businesses are facing globally, the all-island market remains buoyant. The island of Ireland is the perfect place to start, grow and scale a business, ready for internationalisation.”
Those opportunities are about more than just growing sales. “Businesses across the island have a highly accessible, stable export market right on their doorstep. It gives them a practical, lower-risk route to build export experience and competence. We know from our research that the vast majority of businesses selling cross-Border then go on to sell off the island. We also know that businesses that export cross-Border are more profitable, enjoy higher levels of growth, and are more resilient than the ones that do not.”
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Results from the InterTradeIreland quarterly All-Island Business Monitor (AIBM) confirm that view. “We ask 750 businesses a range of questions about their outlook and the challenges they face,” says Hearty. “Seventy-seven per cent of respondents in the most recent survey recommended cross-Border exporting as a stepping stone to exporting further afield. It helps them build the confidence, capability, and skills they need to go on and sell off the island.”
InterTradeIreland provides a range of practicable supports to assist businesses on their cross-Border trading journey, from researching the opportunity, to winning new business, and even providing funding for a salesperson in the other market.
A recent example is Skin Formulas in Tipperary, which grew sales into Northern Ireland to over 10 per cent of its turnover and set up a warehouse operation enabling the business to supply into the wider UK market.
Evolving supports
InterTradeIreland’s Trade Hub, an online always-on digital service, provides businesses with the latest information in terms of customs, VAT, regulations and employment and what they need to know to be compliant and trade with confidence. It is backed up by an online chat service, a telephone helpline and dedicated support from expert consultants who provide advice to help companies to grow cross-Border trade opportunities.
The organisation continually looks to evolve its supports in response to changing needs and new market opportunities. Hearty says, “During a recent all-island supply chain programme, we worked with 25 SMEs and eight multinationals and identified for them a sales pipeline worth €20 million.”
InterTradeIreland has a strong track record and focus on driving entrepreneurship and investor readiness activity. Its Seedcorn competition has been running for many years and helps entrepreneurs get ready to secure investment. The programme is designed to equip founders with the skills, insight and confidence required to successfully navigate investor conversations to scale their businesses.
Participating companies compete for a total prize fund of €800,000. Recent winners include Maverick AI, a Limerick-based provider of a supply chain decarbonisation platform and Cork-based biotech spin-out Arraypatch, both of whom have since gone on to close significant new investment deals.
But it is about a lot more than the prize money. “The businesses that have participated have come back saying how valuable the process was to them and how, on the back of the support they received through Seedcorn, whether they win or lose, they’re much better placed to secure that all-important funding to help them scale,” says Hearty.
She points out that improving productivity is an economic policy priority North and South and that collaborative innovation is key to improving the international competitiveness of indigenous firms.
“We are always seeking ways to help SMEs across the island to better understand and embrace innovation. Through an open market call last year, we launched several new innovation programmes including an initiative to support SMEs in the construction sector to adopt AI solutions to drive productivity improvements and create new market opportunities.
“Our Innovation Boost programme supports SMEs to hire a graduate to take forward an innovation project and benefit from support from an academic expert.”
Collaboration is at the core of the organisation. “Our new strategy talks about our unique role to ‘connect, convene and collaborate’. This goes right back to the foundation of what we’re about,” says Hearty. “We are unique in our ability to bring policymakers, businesses, enterprise development organisations and other experts together to identify opportunities where cross-Border collaboration can accelerate business and economic growth.”
InterTradeIreland’s research programme provides valuable evidence and insights to identify new and emerging opportunities where cross-Border collaboration can accelerate growth in both jurisdictions. Its recent circular economy and offshore wind reports include recommendations where ambitious net-zero targets and the commercial opportunity can be best achieved through an all-island approach.
Industry cluster development is a great example of how successful collaboration can work in practice. “International evidence shows that SMEs benefit greatly from cluster participation, because the shared expertise, networks and resources that they can access allows them to grow more quickly,” says Hearty.
“Through the work in our Synergy Programme, we are leading the development of all-island clusters in priority sectors of strength including cyber security, precision oncology and advanced manufacturing where there are complementary capability and expertise North and South.
“Trade on the island continues to go from strength to strength,” Hearty says. “From when we opened our doors 26 years ago when cross-Border trade was worth €2 billion, to today, with it over €17 billion and still growing. Our new strategy is designed to build on that platform to drive collaboration that leads to continued business and economic growth and shared success across the island.”
Visit intertradeireland.com for more information.
