The Corkman

Maura’s business by design took lots of time and effort

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Maura Hunter, set up MH Designs, a successful Interior Design business in the early 90’s.

Mother of five small children, she will be the first to admit that her business experience was more than

lacking. As with many new businesses, the initial few years were slow and depended largely on local contacts to bring in the work. She learned of and attended the many business developmen­t programmes targeting micro and small enterprise­s which were hugely beneficial.

As the years went by and with much more experience and confidence she began to expand the workforce and tender for larger Government funded projects. MH Designs Ltd was awarded the contract to upgrade Cork Racecourse, Mallow, and subsequent­ly awarded contracts in the upgrade of Clonmel, Tipperary and Fairyhouse Racecourse­s.

These were the first of many large projects that Maura and her staff undertook over the last 26 years.

With the Recession of 2008, business became a struggle for many small enterprise­s. Maura saw a niche in the market for fire rated, anti-microbial, hospitalit­y and healthcare fabrics. This was at the time to prove a good move. Today, MH Designs are one of Ireland’s leading go-to companies for regulated fabrics for Hospitalit­y and Healthcare.

MH Designs work throughout Ireland, and are today based in projects all over Ireland.

In Summer of 2013, Maura and her crew, after much hard work and dedication, were

fortunate enough to be working on the upgrade of the West County Hotel in Ennis, when the redevelopm­ent became a part of the successful “At Your Service” RTE 1 series.

Following on from the success of the show, Maura was asked by the media company, Waddell Media, to take part in three further Christmas specials.

From this they have contracted Maura as the Resident Interior Designer for the 2017 and now the 2018 series. Filming is to begin next week.

This exposure on prime time TV, which Maura said; “would have been impossible without the confidence and knowledge gained from our 25 years in business - the wisdom and knowledge that only hard work and perseveran­ce can bring.”

 ??  ?? Maura Hunter of MH Designs with business gurus John and Francis Brennan.
Maura Hunter of MH Designs with business gurus John and Francis Brennan.

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