Editor’s Note
It’s refreshing how every year the magazine comes across stellar business performers we’ve never encountered before. That stands to reason. Though Ireland is small country with just five million people, there are tens and thousands of entrepreneurs. A handful become well-known but the vast majority keep their heads down and toil away in the trenches, hoping against hope that politicians and civil servants don’t make their job even harder. Every year EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards progamme showcases 24 of the country’s best enterprises, ranging from relative newcomers to long-established ventures of scale. In this issue we look at the eight contenders in the awards ‘Industry’ category (see page 36), having perused the ‘Emerging’ and ‘International’ contenders in previous issues.
There are two types of entrepreneurs. Most are of the lifestyle variety, people who start a business to control their own fate and income. They stay small, provide some employment and are content to chug along. Then there are the entrepreneurs who, over time, grow to 10, 20, 50 or more employees. These are the people that the EY awards will celebrate on November 12, recognising that scaling a business is challenging and requires very special personal characteristics.
Frank Kiernan and his wife Dolores (above), both in their sixties and still at the helm after establishing Kiernan Structural Steel over 30 years ago. From nothing the couple have built an enterprise that provides jobs for c.140 people in the midlands and beyond. Neil and Paul Fitzgibbon of Ard Ri Group in Tralee had a headstart, insofar as their father founded the venture, and the sons have taken it to the next level by pursuing globalisation and establishing factories in China.
Family business General Paints Group in Celbridge has been on the go for almost 70 years, holding its own in a sector dominated by multinationals. M50 Truck & Van Centre is also now led by the third generation of the founding family, with Antonia Hendron expanding the business in new directions.
EY’s competition is an all-island affair, and we’ll be rooting for Brendan McDowell, founder and sole owner of BPerfect Cosmetics in Belfast. The son of a digger driver, McDowell failed his GCSEs and spent his twenties as a salesman. Inspired by a self-help book, McDowell started selling cosmetics and last year his company delivered a net profit of £1.6m.
One factor that distinguishes successful entrepreneurs from the also-rans is they make serious money. That’s something young people should remember before they take Covid-19 fright and dart for the pensionable security of the public sector.
Award contenders