It’s girl power as Louth’s female entrepreneurs shine

IT was a case of ‘Girl Power’ at the showcase event to end Local Enterprise Week Louth 2018 last week as the winners of the National Enterprise Awards for Louth were announced.

All three winners were female entrepreneurs and their stories were complimented by the decades of experience that guest speaker John Teeling brought to the event in his keynote address.

The ‘Inspiring Enterprise’ lunch event was held in An Táin Theatre in Dundalk’s Town Hall and hosted by Local Enterprise Office Louth.

Speaking at the event, Head of Enterprise in Louth Thomas McEvoy declared: ‘We celebrated innovation, entrepreneurship and endurance at the National Enterprise Awards finals for Louth on 9th March.

‘ THe guest speaker John Teeling, a celebrated entrepreneur over many decades, shared his wisdom. He talked of vision, determination, dealing with uncertainty, accessing resources and most importantly, the grit needed to survive when things get tough.’

By contrast, John Teeling shared the stage with some of Louth’s emerging entrepreneurs, each of whom scooped a Louth Enterprise Award. Indeed, with 3 female entrepreneurs taking the 3 awards, MC Noel Davidson declared that Louth was extending International Women’s Day an extra 24 hours!

Marita Collier of Drummond House Garlic in Baltray took home the Innovation Award. Drummond House are Ireland’s first and largest commercial growers of Irish Premium Asparagus, Heritage Garlic, Elephant Garlic and Garlic Scapes. Drummond House were praised for creating new products and market demand for a garlic, a product with a previously limited range.

Simply Fit Food’s Evelyn Garland collected the Start-Up award. This fast-growing enterprise, operating from the North East Food Hub in Ardee, provides healthy, nutritious ready meals to health conscious, time poor consumers all over the country. This is one in a series of awards the company have collected recently.

Meanwhile, Nicole Carey of Celtic Testing in Dundalk was the recipient of the Best Established Business Award. Celtic Testing will now go forward to represent Louth in the National Enterprise Awards final in the Mansion House Dublin in May. The company was set up to allow growing companies to mitigate risk on their technology investments through technically skilled and experienced consultants. Employing 9 people, and planning to grow to 25 staff in the coming year, the company is renowned for delivering excellence to Irish and international clients.

The recent passing of legendary Louth entrepreneur and visionary Dr Pearse Lyons of Alltech was also marked with a moment of reflection and a round of applause for all his achievements.

Thomas concluded: ‘While we might celebrate Local Enterprise Week in March, the team in Local Enterprise Office Louth are here to support enterprise all year round. We provide a range of training, supports, mentoring and, in some cases, grant aid to businesses here in Co Louth.’