Shortlist Announced For Carlow Final of National Enterprise Awards 2023 

Carlow County Council’s Local Enterprise Office have announced the shortlist of twelve local businesses who will compete for the honour of representing Carlow at the 2023 National Enterprise Awards.

The National Enterprise Awards are the leading forum for recognising the success of small businesses in Ireland. The awards are organised by the Local Enterprise Offices and are held annually. Each county selects its most vibrant small business as its representative and the successful business will make a presentation on their growth strategy and take part in an intensive questions and answers session with an experienced panel of entrepreneur judges to compete in the national competition. The National Enterprise Awards are held in the Mansion House, Dublin in June when Ireland’s Enterprise of the Year is announced.

This year the Local Enterprise Office will host an awards ceremony in the Step House Hotel, Borris on 9^th March to recognise the vibrancy of businesses in Carlow and to announce the business who will represent the county as “Carlow’s Enterprise of the Year” at the National Enterprise Awards.

The twelve businesses who have been shortlisted and who are in contention to represent Carlow at the National Enterprise Awards are:

• Alloy Tip – Founded by Samir Kumar and based close to Carlow town. Designers and manufacturers of a range of innovative aluminium trailers for the Irish and overseas markets
• Carlow Toolmaking Services – Founded by Pat Amond in 1994 and now one of Ireland’s leading manufacturers of precision components for the medical, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors.
• Equinox Education Services – A leading providers of tailor-made, educational and cultural programmes for overseas students since 2005.
• Forest Rock Technologies – Based in Enterprise House, Carlow and led by Philip Clarke. Developers of software and hardware solutions for building management systems in Ireland and in several overseas countries.
• FTI Wellbeing and Training – A start-up business based in Tullow delivering innovative mental health solutions for the workplace.
• MMPS Carpentry – Based in the Royal Oak. A leading manufacturer of bespoke fitted display units for large scale retail chains.
• Murphy Engineering and Mobile Welding – Founded by Brian and Alison Murphy and located close to Carlow town. Recognised specialists in bespoke fabrications of both mild steel and stainless steel.
• Murphy’s Craft Butchers – A 4^th generation institution in Tullow and now led by Jim Murphy. Manufacturers of a range of high-quality food products for the retail and food service sector and producers of officially “The Best Pork Sausage in the World”.
• Neighbourhood Espresso Workshop – A specialty single origin coffee roasters based in Carlow town. Led by Brian O’Gorman, they use sample batch roasts to develop a roast profile specific to each individual coffee batch.
• Sidereus – based in Kilgraney House, designing and manufacturing limited edition watches. The business is led by industrial designer Bryan Leech, who uses the stories of pre-historic Ireland to inspire the unique designs of these premium timepieces.
• The Big Idea House – Founded by Kim Mackenzie Doyle, The Big Idea House is an exciting new creative education initiative that aims to put creative thinking at the centre of Ireland's second-level education system.
• VisionGreen Consultancy – based in Rathvilly with a mission to support their clients to put strategies and solutions in place to reduce their environmental impact and drive sustainable change.

According to Cllr. Brian O’Donoghue, Cathaoirleach of Carlow County Council “Carlow has a fantastic track record of achievement in the National Enterprise Awards which is a testament to the strength of our small business community. Just last year our representatives FeedAlpha were the winners of the Regional Award and the year before that David Walsh, of Netwatch and Halocare, was the deserving winner of the first ever Outstanding Achievement Award. I am looking forward to seeing who is announced as this year’s Carlow representative and I have no doubt that they will be extremely competitive on the national stage.”

Séamus Doran, Assistant Head of Economic Development & Enterprise added “The National Enterprise Awards offer a huge opportunity to any ambitious business to place themselves in the spotlight and to showcase what they have to offer to a national audience. The twelve businesses who have been shortlisted for the Carlow county round of the National Enterprise Awards all bring a great vibrancy to the table and whichever of them is announced as the winner will be a very capable representative of enterprise in our county.”

The winners will be announced on Thursday 9^th March 2023 at a Networking Lunch with Finalists as part of Local Enterprise Week.

Further information – Kieran Comerford, 086-8252037