Louth Local Enterprise Week 2023 came to a perfect conclusion yesterday (Friday) afternoon at The Monasterboice Inn with the presentation of this year’s Local Enterprise Awards.

The overnight snow provided a chilly backdrop to proceedings but in the function room the atmosphere was warm and convivial as business owners gathered to celebrate the achievements of local entrepreneurs. 

Long before the event was officially opened by Cathaoirleach of Louth County Council, Cllr. Conor Keelan, the room was abuzz with the sound of a hundred conversations. It’s called networking and its important.

Hosted by LMFM’s Gerry Kelly, the awards ceremony featured a keynote interview with Sean O’Connor co-founder of Newry based STATSports which provides GPS performance monitoring and analysis equipment to most of the Premier league soccer clubs in the UK, international rugby and is now making strides into the European and US markets.

During his interview, Sean shared insights into building a global business, personal and professional growth and how to innovate to stay ahead of the competition,

MC Gerry Kelly then announced and interviewed each of the Louth Enterprise Award winners for 2023.

PortAMod were named as winners of the Best Start Up Award. Established back in 2021 by Donal McLoughlin & Tom Condon, PortAMod manufactures and supplies high quality modular buildings from their purpose-built manufacturing facility in Collon.  Their buildings are used extensively in education, healthcare and commercial settings. Since it’s foundation just two years ago, the company now employs 15 staff and are planning to expand by doubling their facility size and increasing their staff numbers further in 2023.

The Innovation Award was presented to Donal Quinn of ENSO. Donal has developed an online platform aimed at making sustainability planning easy and accessible for SME’s.

Using the ENSO platform, businesses can benchmark their sustainability, improve and communicate it to customers who care. Launched in 2022, the company is primarily focused on supporting small food and drink businesses in Ireland, with plans to expand into the UK market.

Jackie and Peter Joliffe of The Crafty Fox in Drogheda scooped the Sustainability Award. The Crafty Fox is an online and retail store based in Drogheda since 2011. The business sells a wide range of fabric, craft & haberdashery products as well as running in-person classes and workshops for crafters.

Sustainability is at the heart of their business.  From reducing energy usage in their premises, to improving delivery methods, stocking threads and ribbons made from recycled materials and offering over 20,000 products in plastic free packaging, The Crafty Fox team are continuously striving to improve sustainability and are a model for many other businesses.

The title of Best Established Business was awarded to SeaPark Consultancy, founded by Donal Geraghty in 2014. SeaPark Consultancy is a leading Business Intelligence consultancy offering innovative and unique solutions for all Digital Transformation needs.

Based in the Regional Development Centre in Dundalk Institute of Technology, Donal has expanded SeaPark Consultancy to provide it’s to clients in Ireland, UK, Germany and Denmark including the HSE, Lego and Atlas CopCo.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, SeaPark Consultancy was announced as the overall winner of the 2023 Louth Enterprise Awards. Donal Geraghty and his team will now go forward to represent Louth in the National Enterprise Awards finals in The Mansion House, Dublin on 1st June.

Concluding the event, Sarah Mallon, Coordinator of the Local Enterprise Week for Louth reminded the audience that Enterprise is crucial to the health of the economy here in Louth.

"Our role in the Local Enterprise Office is to advise and guide SMEs across the county to help them grow and create jobs" she said.

"Local Enterprise Week may be over, but we are always here to help and support local businesses. Visit www.LocalEnterprise.ie/Louth/ReadyTo to discover the many ways that we can help your business.”