Local Winner heading for ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ National Final

A young Kilkenny entrepreneur has won a place at the national final of the prestigious ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ competition, for a chance to share a €100,000 investment fund.

Eoin Treacy from Glanway Ltd will be representing the region in the Best Established Business category at the national final in Dublin 

later in March and has already won €15,000 in investment from the Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny. The company Glanway Ltd with a processing and production facility for waste-derived alternative fuels at Belview port; has grown rapidly since it commenced operations 3 years ago to become the largest waste processing facility in the South East of Ireland.

Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition is an integral part of the Action Plan for Jobs and is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through the 31 Local Enterprise Offices around the country.

At the IBYE Regional Final, three local business owners and new start-ups from Kilkenny, all under the age of 35, went head-to-head with other county winners from Carlow, Wicklow and Wexford. The three young entrepreneurs representing the county at the Regional Final were:

• Best Business Idea; Tara Hennessy, Spydar
• Best Business Start Up; Rory Gannon, Cake Face.
• Best Established Business; Eoin Treacy, Glanway Ltd

The nominees were all interviewed by a three member judging panel and had to deliver a business pitch. Assessed on criteria such as business innovation, job creation potential and financial planning, the announcement of the national finalists was made at a reception in the Tinakilly Country House in Co. Wicklow on Thursday last 25^th January.

Eoin now faces tough competition from 23 other finalists, emerging from eight regional finals. The €100,000 investment fund will be presented in Google Foundry, Dublin on Sunday 4^th March; the initial event for Local Enterprise Week 2018. The investment fund is divided up across four prizes:

-          Best New Idea (€20,000 investment)

-          Best Start Up (€30,000 investment)

-          Best Established Business (€30,000 investment)

-          Overall Winner of ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ (an additional €20,000 investment)

More than 400 business owners and start-ups from around the country have already benefitted from intensive business bootcamps and mentoring programmes through the network of Local Enterprise Offices, as part of the competition.

The Head of Enterprise with the Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny, Fiona Deegan said: “We are very proud and honoured to have had such strong contenders in this year’s ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ competition, especially when you consider that over 1,000 small business owners entered this year. I’d like to congratulate all our nominees and entrants, who participated in the competition and we look forward to supporting their businesses into the future. Our finalist now has a chance of being crowned ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ and to win additional investment of up to €50,000 for their business”.

News, results and updates for ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ competition, is available through www.ibye.ie, www.localenterprise.ie and by searching #IBYE on social media.