DLR Young Entrepreneurs Celebrated - 10th October 2014

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(L-R) Patrick Hayes (Sportiful), Elaine Lavery (Improper Butter) and Ruth Hussey (Pure Food) winners at the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county finals of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur 2014 competition pictured with Cllr. Marie Baker, An Cathaoirleach, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Innovative young entrepreneurs from three local businesses represented Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County at the Dublin Regional Finals of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) Competition on 6th November 2014 in the Hilton Dublin Kilmainham Hotel.

IBYE is a national initiative launched by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices last May to encourage and support a culture of entrepreneurship among people aged under 30. The county final took place in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire on Thursday, 9th October. At the awards ceremony organised by  the Local Enterprise Office Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, 12 businesses competed for a prize fund worth €50,000 across 3 award categories; Best New Idea, Best Start-Up Business and Best Established Business.

Category Winners Announced for DLR County

• In the Best New Idea Category, Stillorgan-based Patrick Hayes took first place and a prize fund of €10,000 for Sportiful, an online booking platform that will connect sports players to venues in their locality.
  
  
• Elaine Lavery of Improper Butter in Clonskeagh claimed the Best Business Start-Up Award and a prize fund of €20,000 for her company which sells an innovative range of flavoured butters.
  
  
• Ruth Hussey of Blackrock’s Pure Food, a producer of Gluten and Wheat free products for the wholesale and retail markets, collected the Best Established Business Award and a prize of €20,000. Improper Butter also scooped the Overall County Winner Award.

The Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Cllr. Marie Baker presented the winners with their awards, commenting “Each of our winning businesses is fully deserving of the recognition they have received. They represent excellent role models for anyone who is thinking of starting a business in their late teens or twenties.”    

Michael Hayden of the Local Enterprise Office added: “Our 12 businesses reflected the depth of innovation that can be found amongst young entrepreneurs in our county and each promoter deserves great credit for their commitment to this initiative. Since early summer they have been working, with the support of our business mentors, to hone their business plans and pitches and in recent weeks benefitted from participation in a 2 day residential Bootcamp. We wish our winners the very best as they progress to the next stage of the competition.”