Mallow company up for top business award
“GOING FOR THE TOP AWARD IS A PROUD ACHIEVEMENT, WHATEVER THE OUTCOME’
MALLOW based Health and Safety Publications will this Friday go head-to-head with two other companies in what its owner and founder Marek Szepietowski described as a “David Vs Goliath” style battle for the inaugural Cork Business of the Year award.
The ceremony will be the final stage of the inaugural Cork County Business and Tourism Awards, an exciting initiative created by Cork County Council in association with the AIB to shine the spotlight on the key movers and shakers that help make Cork such a vibrant place to live in, work in and visit.
The Corkman, The Southern Star and The East Cork Journal have come on board as media sponsors for the initiative, which celebrates entrepreneurial excellence and rewards the individuals and companies behind that success.
The scheme was divided across three geographical regions - North Cork, West Cork and East Cork - with 11 specific award categories open to entrants within each of the designated regions.
Corkman general manager Siobhán Murphy said the newspaper was delighted to partner with Cork County Council for the North Cork section of the scheme.
“These awards recognise local businesses as the bedrock of the North Cork economy and reward them for their consistent commitment to excellence and customer service,” said Siobhán.
Siobhán said the ultimate aim was to keep the awards evolving in order to keep them relevant and capture the ever changing nature of business in North Cork.
“We understand that there is no single classification of what a business is, as it is an ever-changing environment with self-employed and large scale businesses contributing to the overall story that is North Cork business,” said Ms Murphy.
“The awards provide a welcome annual platform for business people to showcase and share their stories,” she said.
The awards attracted a total of 324 entries from 240 different business and tourism organisations across the county, with the chosen finalists taking part in a ‘pitch night’ during which they promoted themselves to competition judges.
One of the 11 category winners from each area was last November crowned the overall regional Business
of the Year - with Health and Safety Publications Ltd scooping the North Cork award.
They will go up against Keohane Seafoods of Bantry ( West Cork) and the Castlemartyr Resort (East Cork) for the overall Cork County Business of the Year award at the County Hall bash, which will be hosted by Mallow’s own Marty Morrissey.
Speaking to The Corkman Marek, who has overseen growth of his fledgling company from scratch to the point where it has sold 1.5million books in the Irish market alone and is now looking at expanding across Europe, said just to get this far in the competition was “an amazing experience”.
“Of course I would like us to win. That said, we are small operation going up against two large companies, so in that respect I view it very much as a David vrs Goliath type scenario. To be honest, I never even dreamt we would win the North Cork section, so to be going for the top award is a proud achievement for us, whatever the outcome will be on Friday,” he said.
“Getting to this stage of the competition has been an amazing experience for us. It has helped raise the profile of the company and is great recognition for all of the hard work we have done as a team over the years,” he added.