There was joy for the Banner County in Croke Park when local businesses were honoured with a coveted All-Ireland Business Award.
Shannon-based Advanced Technical Concepts, which specialises in providing engineering and supply chain components and parts, won the Medium Business Award 2019 at the prestigious All-Ireland Business Foundation’s annual All-Ireland Business Summit and awards.
Castle Blinds, Newmarket-on-Fergus, was named runner-up in the Manufacturing Business of the Year category.
The All-Ireland Business Foundation is responsible for overseeing the All-Ireland Business Summit and All-Ireland Business awards, ongoing All-Star accreditation, Thought Leader awards and promoting peer dialogue among members.
Companies which already hold Business All-Star Accreditation from the All-Ireland Business Foundation compete in the finals of the All-Ireland Business Awards in a range of categories.
All finalists were ‘live-judged’ on the day by an adjudication panel chaired by Dr Briga Hynes of the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick and Kieran Ring, CEO of the Global Institute of Logistics.
This was the fifth annual All-Ireland Business Summit and Business Awards event.
The networking and collaboration element of the annual Summits led to the establishment of the All-Ireland Business Foundation, which has accredited 350 companies.
“The Foundation is privileged to showcase and acknowledge the diverse talent and tremendous determination and success that exists amongst Irish SMEs,” said Dr Hynes.
“All entrants are to be congratulated on the level of professionalism of their submissions and the positive endorsement received from customers and suppliers.
“The submissions captured the hard work, dedication and ability of entrepreneurs to build alliances to achieve growth and demonstrated that SMEs are the small giants of the Irish economy.”
Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mairead McGuinness MEP, who presented the award, said the commitment to quality of the small to medium enterprise sector was critical to the Irish economy.
“Ireland has the fastest growing economy in Europe and one of the fastest rates of business start-ups,” said McGuinness.
“Small to medium enterprises make up 99% of Irish businesses and their importance to the Irish economy can never be understated.
“I am very proud of all the businesses here today, their commitment to quality, as evidenced by gaining these coveted All-Ireland Business awards, will ensure Irish SMEs continue to grow.”
For more information about the All-Ireland Business Foundation see businessallstars.ie