At an awards ceremony hosted by Cork’s three Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) yesterday, nine of Cork’s ‘Best Young Entrepreneurs’ were named.
The winners were chosen from 45 young entrepreneurs, shortlisted from almost 150 applicants in the competition launched this summer by the LEOs in Cork, as part of a nationwide search to find ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ (IBYE).
The 2015 winners in each of the three categories will now go forward to represent their respective LEO in a regional final in November, and if successful there, will fly the Cork flag at the national final where ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ will be crowned before the end of the year.
The winning businesses were chosen according to criteria including business investment needs, business prospects and the young entrepreneur themselves.
The winner in each category receives significant investment in their business, with one overall winner in each of the regions receiving the accolade of ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’.
In the LEO Cork City competition, the Best Idea category was won by Breffney O’Dowling Keane, who received €10,000 investment in her company, FruitCubed. FruitCubed are fruit based stock cubes which utilise waste and over-ripe fruits to produce a product with an extended shelf life which delivers a tasty, innovative, nutritional solution.
Jack Crotty of The Rocket Man received €20,000 investment in the Best Established category. Beginning trading from a fold out table at farmers markets The Rocket Man is now a mobile Salad and Juice bar with a fixed premises in Cork City centre, and also features at many festivals and events. They use up to 60 artisans for ingredients and pride themselves in using local ingredients served conveniently around the city.
The title of Best Start-up, and €20,000 investment, went to Gail Condon, founder of Writing for Tiny, which makes highly personalised children's books about life’s changes, worries and milestones, allowing the child to engage with the story. Gail’s ethos is to include the child in decision making, communicate effectively and to encourage 'IndieThinking'. Gail also walked away with the title of Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Cork City region.
Head of Enterprise at Local Enterprise Office Cork City, Adrienne Rodgers said, "Now in its second year, IBYE has once again unearthed a wealth of young entrepreneurs in Cork who we now need to nurture and support.
"The aim of this initiative is to encourage and support a culture of entrepreneurship among young people in region, to promote entrepreneurship as a career choice, and to encourage the establishment and development of new innovative businesses."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
