Louth’s enterprising faces are honoured
Bellingham Castle was a stunning location for the county finals of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.
The venue twinkled with Christmas lights but nothing shone as brightly as the 19 young entrepreneurs who made it to the final.
Introduced in 2014, Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) is a competition for entrepreneurs under 35 years of age. The Local Enterprise Office in each county runs their own competition and each selects a winner in three categories: Best New Idea, Best Start Up and Best Established Business.
Each winner receives valuable investment in their business plus additional business support as they move forward to the Regional Finals on 24th January.
They will represent Louth as they compete with their fellow winners from Meath, Cavan and Monaghan for a place in the National Finals. You’d never guess it but the world of baby and nursery stores is an incredibly competitive and cut throat industry. But Margaret Robb from www. SweetLittleBabies.com on the Coes Road in Dundalk is bucking the trend and throwing out the rule book.
This dynamic young entrepreneur has brought a completely fresh approach to the baby and nursery retail sector. They stock all the essentials for babies but they do it with style, personality and a young, fresh approach.
This allows parents to keep their own identity and style as they move into this new phase of their lives. Trading nearly 4 years, both in store and online, Margaret has major plans for development in 2017 and with her energy, drive and determination she is bound to succeed.
Perhaps best known for being a star performer in the 2014 series of The Apprentice on BBC, Roisin Hogan of Hiro is producing her healthy food range in Drogheda.
HIRO is a range of delicious, healthy, freshly prepared meals available in chill-cabinets right across the country. The word “HIRO” is Japanese and means abundance or generosity.
All dishes are fat free, low sugar, low carb and delicious. In her Drogheda R&D kitchen, Roisin is working on a new range of meals that will launch in 2017 and also plans to break into the UK market next. Roisin was also named the overall winner of IBYE Louth.
Conor’s invention is a web app that brings cutting edge sports analytics to local sports clubs, teams, schools and community groups.
This free app (available from www.tactictalks.com) allows coaches to engage with their players and teams to talk about strategy and developing their skills and game plans.
Based in Drogheda’s Incubation Centre at Millmount, Conor’s business idea has recently become a reality. It is currently being trialled by the GAA in Ireland and the US.