26th May 2023
CLONTARF CASTLE
◆ BEST IN THE COMMUNITY An Post
◆ SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR
Bord Na Móna
◆ RECRUITMENT FIRM OF THE YEAR Excel Recruitment
◆ LOCAL AUTHORITY OF THE YEAR
Fingal County Council
◆ LOGISTICS COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Kuehne+Nagel
◆ ENERGY PROVIDER TO BUSINESS DCC Energy
◆ BUSINESS BROADBAND PROVIDER OF THE YEAR Rural Wifi
◆ RETAIL EXCELLENCE OF THE YEAR
Meaghers Pharmacy
◆ WASTE MANAGEMENT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Panda
◆ GREEN ENERGY COMPANY OF THE YEAR Pinergy
◆ FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY OF THE YEAR Zurich
◆ CYBER SECURITY COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Smarttech247
◆ BUSINESS BANK OF THE YEAR AIB
◆ LIFE SCIENCE COMPANY OF THE YEAR
AstraZeneca
◆ DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INCLUSION COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Nestlé Ireland
◆ ICT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Viatel
◆ FACILITIES MANAGEMENT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Aramark Ireland
◆ FINANCIAL SOFTWARE COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Corlytics
◆ BRAND OF THE YEAR
Lily O’Brien’s
◆ MANUFACTURING COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Eli Lilly
◆ BUSINESSWOMAN OF THE YEAR
Rhonda Doyle, Schneider Electrics
◆ BUSINESSMAN OF THE YEAR
Colm Carroll, Carrolls Irish Gifts
◆ COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Panda
5
AN POST: Part of the fabric of community life
7
BORD NA MÓNA: From brown to green business
9
EXCEL RECRUITMENT: A proactive approach to talent supply
11
FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL: Serving a diverse community
13
KUEHNE+NAGEL: White glove logistics, collaborating with clients
14
DCC ENERGY: Solving the energy trilemma
17
RURAL WIFI: Putting the customer first 18
MEAGHERS PHARMACY: Transforming the image of community pharmacy 21
PANDA: Moving towards zero landfill waste management 23
PINERGY: Energy with insight 25
ZURICH: Trust excellence, experience and active management
27 SMARTTECH247: Staying ahead in a complex threat landscape
29
AIB: Supporting SMEs
31
ASTRAZENECA: Pushing the boundaries
32
NESTLÉ IRELAND: Gold standard of D&I
35
VIATEL: Dynamic growth
37
ARAMARK IRELAND: Innovating every day
39
CORLYTICS: Clever solutions
41
LILY O BRIEN’S: Building a global chocolate brand
43
ELI LILLY: Excellence cross the board
44
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC: People person
47
CARROLLS IRISH GIFTS: Risk taker
48
PANDA: Part of the bigger picture
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this year’s InBUSINESS Recognition Awards, and celebrate another year of resilience, success and growth for our members and business in Ireland. As the head of Chambers Ireland, I find myself looking back on the year 2022 with a mix of relief and admiration for the resilience shown by organisations large and small. It was a year marked by a multitude of challenges, both domestically and globally, that tested the mettle of entrepreneurs and corporate leaders alike. From the war in Ukraine to the rebounding of business after the end of the pandemic, the housing crisis, and the encroaching global talent shortage, Irish businesses navigated treacherous waters to find opportunities for growth.
The year 2022 edition was a record-breaking one for new company start-ups, marking a significant turning point for the Irish economy’s Covid-19 recovery. We are a nation of innovators. The statistics bear this out, not just in start-ups but also in the strong ethos of innovation across all business. According to the Central Statistics Office figures, Irish-owned enterprises reported a 22% increase in R&D spend between 2019 and
Ian Talbot, CEO of Chambers Ireland reflects on the business landscape over the last year, and the resilience and innovation of Irish businesses
Ian Talbot, CEO, Chambers Ireland
WITH THE RIGHT STRATEGIES IN PLACE, IRISH COMPANIES CAN TAP INTO EMERGING MARKETS, CAPITALISE ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, AND STRENGTHEN THEIR COMPETITIVE EDGE
2021, up from €963.0m to €1.18bn. Large enterprises accounted for 63% or €2.43bn of R&D expenditure in 2021, with Irish-owned enterprises accounting for 30% or €1.18bn of total R&D expenditure.
The global landscape played a significant role in shaping the business environment in Ireland in 2022. The invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, caused geopolitical tensions that reverberated across the globe. The resulting disruptions to supply chains and increased uncertainty impacted Irish businesses, particularly those involved in international trade. As the conflict escalated, the importance of diversifying supply chains and exploring alternative markets were underlined once again, although many businesses had learned these lessons already during the disruption of the pandemic and Brexit. As always, our members found ways to adapt swiftly, seeking new partners and markets to mitigate the potential impact of the conflict.
On the domestic front, the end of the pandemic had brought a sense of relief and optimism. Businesses, having weathered the storm of lockdowns and restrictions, eagerly anticipated the rebound of economic activity. Entrepreneurs demonstrated remarkable resilience, adapting their business models to meet the changing needs of consumers. The acceleration of digital transformation, which was already underway, became even more pronounced as companies embraced remote work, e-commerce, and other technological solutions. The pandemic served as a catalyst for innovation, forcing businesses to rethink their strategies and
embrace new ways of operating. However, while the pandemic abated, the housing crisis continued to pose a significant challenge for businesses in Ireland. The shortage of affordable housing not only affected employees’ quality of life but also impacted businesses’s ability to attract and retain talent. High housing costs and limited availability hampered the recruitment efforts of companies across various sectors. A concerted effort is needed to develop sustainable solutions and provide adequate housing options for employees, ensuring a vibrant and thriving business environment.
As the economy rebounded and businesses sought to capitalise on new opportunities, the demand for skilled professionals continues to surge. We need to be sure that a mismatch between the skills required by businesses and those possessed by the available workforce do not hinder our growth potential, particularly in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and renewable energy. Addressing this issue requires a multifaceted approach, including investment in education and training programs, attracting international talent, and upskilling the existing workforce, to ensure a sustainable talent pipeline for future growth.
Looking ahead to the remainder of this year, Irish businesses stand poised to seize new opportunities while addressing ongoing challenges. Ireland’s reputation as a hub for innovation and business remains strong. With the right strategies in place, Irish companies can tap into emerging markets, capitalise on digital transformation, and strengthen their competitive edge. Collaboration and cooperation within the business community will
be essential in finding innovative solutions to global challenges. By working together, businesses can create an environment that attracts and retains top talent, fostering innovation and driving economic growth.
In conclusion, the year 2022 presented Irish businesses with a unique set of challenges, from global geopolitical tensions to domestic issues such as the housing crisis and talent shortage. However, it also showcased the resilience, adaptability, and determination of the Irish business community. As we look forward to the year ahead, it is imperative that we build upon the lessons learned and collaborate to create an environment that nurtures growth, innovation, and prosperity for all. By embracing opportunities and addressing challenges head-on, Irish businesses can continue to thrive in an ever-changing global landscape.
InBUSINESS, the official publication of Chambers Ireland, as Ireland’s leading business quarterly, continues to highlight the successes of the best of Irish business. The annual InBUSINESS Recognition Awards recognise and reward exceptional business achievement and innovation and aim to acknowledge the contributions of individuals to grow business in this country.
Winners this year, across the categories, were nominated by editors, based on the broad criteria including growth, profile of business, range of services and customer care. All are very worthy of this recognition and set the standard for business in Ireland today.
Congratulations to all the award winners and I wish you all continued prosperity and success over the following year.
As one of the country’s largest employers, operators of one of the largest fleets and with the country’s largest retail network, An Post is part of every community and the fabric of everyday life in Ireland.
Post Offices continue to be valuable community assets, cornerstones of thriving social networks, giving urban, rural and offshore populations easy access to An Post’s expanded range of products and services, from mail to mobile, financial, insurance and more.
permanent fixed address to access social welfare payments.
WITH 95 PER CENT OF THE RURAL POPULATION WITHIN 15KM OF AT LEAST ONE POST OFFICE, AND 90 PER CENT OF THE URBAN POPULATION WITHIN 3KM OF ONE, AN POST REMAINS AT THE HEART OF COMMUNITY LIFE IN IRELAND
An Post has also stepped up to play a part in the lives of newcomers, to support Ukrainian refugees with a suite of initiatives. Through its partner Western Union, An Post removed fees on money transfers to and from Ukraine, and working alongside Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, and Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s national post, provided free postage of over 90,000 letters and parcels to Ukraine.
It also provided over 15,600 An Post Mobile sim cards with one month of free credit, as well as free calls and texts to Ukraine for those arriving into Ireland following the Russian invasion.
The Address Point service, originally developed to support the homeless, was also relevant to enable Ukrainians who did not yet have a
An Post continuously looks for new ways to work with people, communities, and businesses and to evolve with their changing needs. In 2022 this ranged from continued support of UNICEF’s ‘Get a Vaccine, Give a Vaccine’ campaign, to a partnership with Carepack.ie, sending over 21,000 free parcels to care and nursing homes over the Christmas period, a service An Post plans to continue in 2023.
Post offices also serve as collection points for charitable campaigns, such as the community support fund started to support the people of Creeslough in Co Donegal after the shocking explosion which rocked the small community and took the lives of 10 people, and collections for UNICEF and the Irish Red Cross Ukraine Support Appeal.
With 95 per cent of the rural population within 15km of at least one Post Office, and 90 per cent of the urban population within 3km of one, An Post remains at the heart of community life in Ireland, and with its Green Hub ambitions to help homeowners through energy upgrades, will continue to serve communities through innovative and pragmatic measures that make a real difference to their daily lives.
An Post continuously looks for new ways to work with people, communities, and businesses and to evolve with their changing needsNicola Woods, Chief Transformation Officer, An Post
Bord na Móna has fully shifted its focus from a fossil fuels company to a green business leading Ireland towards a climate neutral future
Since the adoption of its Brown to Green strategy in 2018, Bord na Móna has fully shifted its focus to become a climate solutions company leading Ireland towards a climate neutral future.
Bord na Móna accelerated its development pipeline of renewable energy and recycling infrastructure, with a strategic re-organisation of the company into three operational business units: Recycling, Renewables and Land & Habitats. In addition, its Accelerate Green initiative is helping to grow companies leading the response to climate action and green innovation.
The company is planning on investing €2.7 billion to fund a series of major climate-focused projects across its 200,000-acre landholding. These projects include wind, solar energy, battery storage, biomass, renewable gas and demand-side assets for delivery in this decade and beyond The Renewables business represents the most tangible example of Bord na Móna’s transition from a fossil fuel company to a green business. Bord na Móna has built and operates renewable energy facilities that use wind, biomass and biogas with an
installed capacity of circa 700MW under management. By 2030 it will be generating enough renewable energy to supply nearly a third of all Irish homes.
In 2020 Bord na Móna commenced a €126m Peatland Climate Action Scheme, which will remediate ‘cut-over’ peatlands to lock in a store of millions tonnes of carbon in perpetuity. Some areas will be restored to naturally functioning bogs which will eventually sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well as boosting biodiversity and other ecosystem services.
Bord na Móna are working with researchers and leading academic institutions to develop robust scientific data on the quantities of CO2 that Irish peatlands can absorb from the atmosphere.
Dr John MacNamara, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Bord na Móna, says: “It’s an exciting time. Our Land & Habitats team have developed world class in-house expertise and are beginning to see increased interest from corporates seeking to partner with Bord na Móna and invest in its efforts around peatland rehabilitation and restoration.”
Bord na Móna continues to be one of Ireland’s pre-eminent
players in the waste collection and recycling sector, servicing over 130,000 households and over 5,000 commercial customers. The company has plans to develop an anaerobic digestion plant, which will transform biodegradable waste into green biogas for injection in the national gas network, an investment that compliments a landfill gas unit, which is currently part of Bord na Móna’s generation fleet and which produces enough renewable electricity to meet the needs of over 8,000 households.
Bord na Móna’s ‘Accelerate Green’ is Ireland’s first sustainable business accelerator, is now on its third intake of candidate companies. MacNamara likens the programme to “a mini-MBA with a sustainability focus”.
With participants in fields including sustainable packaging, carbon sequestration, and renewable energy he notes, “At the moment, these companies may not be household names but the disruptive technologies and business cases they are developing have the potential to make real and substantive contributions to climate action and a more sustainable society.” Much like Bord na Móna itself.
One of the highlights of the past year for Excel Recruitment has been expansion into Northern Ireland, a move precipitated by demand from clients in retail and hospitality who had reached out for assistance with recruiting across the border. “It’s a fantastic success and has grown much quicker than we had envisaged. There are fantastic opportunities in Northern Ireland,” says Shane McLave, Managing Director, Excel Recruitment.
A new city centre Dublin office also opened in October last year, at a cost of €1.5m.
“It’s given us the opportunity to expand our team with another 60 people being added to the business.”
In order to ensure that they have a steady supply of candidates for jobs, Excel Recruitment take a proactive approach, from giving talks in schools to holding oneday courses where people can get a feel for different sectors, and training, from the Irish Barista Academy to manual handling courses. “It’s really important to catch people at a young age, it’s not just all about approaching people on LinkedIn at a senior
level,” he notes. He points to English language schools and refugee centres as being full of people with skills who may just need some help with getting into the workforce –”advising them on how to get a PPS, how to open a bank account ”
Heading into a very busy summer with lots of music festivals and events, TikTok has now become a recruitment platform. “You have to make sure that you’re using every available avenue. Some types of people are on Instagram,
HAVING SPECIALIST DIVISIONS IN SO MANY DIFFERENT AREAS—RETAIL, HOSPITALITY, HEALTHCARE, INDUSTRIAL—THERE’S VERY FEW WALKS OF LIFE THAT WE’RE NOT INVOLVED IN
“It’s not that you put up an ad in a newspaper or on a website, and people just come to you; you have to be looking at every single level, you have to be networking, you have to be looking at the full A to Z. When it comes to where you’re getting your candidates, there’s no one simple solution.” Recruiting across a broad range of sectors, giving flexibility to clients who are slightly unsure of the future, and don’t want to commit to new hires, is an important part of the Excel service: “We give flexibility to our client before they make any solid commitments, they can bring a couple of people in on contract and that can be the solution while they wait to see what happens.”
some types of people are only on LinkedIn. So, it depends because, we recruit across such a broad spectrum,” McLave says. “We’re recruiting from CEO all the way down to Kitchen Porter, so the same thing is not going to work for both, they’re different audiences.”
“Having specialist divisions in so many different areas—retail, hospitality, healthcare, industrial— there’s very few walks of life that we’re not involved in. And that’s been a benefit because we’re always networking, we’re always looking at new trends, we’re always talking to business and industry.”
For more information:
Call: 081 891 9360
Visit: www.excelrecruitement.com
Email: info@excelrecruitment.com
From farming to fishing, to modern connected businesses, Fingal County Council serves the needs of a diverse range of inhabitants
Since 1994, Fingal County Council has been the Local Authority for North Dublin, looking after a county that has seen massive growth over the past 29 years.
The population of 329,218 is one of the fastest growing and youngest in Ireland and has more than doubled since 1994.
Fingal is home to both farming and fishing communities as well as modern connected businesses, and the County Council serves the needs of these diverse stakeholders through the provision of 924 different services.
Fingal County Council now has 40 councillors representing seven electoral areas and a staff of 1,500 highly committed people with an Executive Management team that is made up of six women and five men. The elected council has the fifth highest number of female councillors in Ireland with 15 women.
The Council’s current capital programme will deliver 266 projects worth €989m as it strives to build the County and make Fingal the best place in Ireland to live, work, visit and do business in.
Some highlights of the council’s work over the past year include:
Completed towards the end of 2022, this was Fingal County Council’s first affordable housing scheme in a decade. The Dun Emer Affordable Home
Purchase Scheme was heavily oversubscribed when applications were invited for the 39 affordable housing units available.
Planning permission has been approved for the Swords Cultural Quarter, a new €60 million development to include a new county library, theatre and art spaces in Swords. Swords has seen massive population growth and has grown from 4,000 people 50 years ago to over 50,000 today and is heading for 100,000.
Since 2019, the Council’s pursuance of vacancy has seen 70 privately owned vacant units brought back into occupation. Work has also commenced elsewhere in the county on two dwellings under the Croí Conaithe refurbishment grant scheme with a further five applications under assessment.
The majority of Ukrainian refugees landed at Dublin Airport in Fingal. A rest centre was opened up in the Liam Rogers
Community Centre, providing temporary accommodation and support services, in association with other agencies, and the Fingal Ukrainian Response Forum has organised a range of initiatives from language training to a ‘Start Your Own Business’ course.
Located in Mulhuddart, Church Fields is one of the largest housing developments that Fingal is currently taking forward. Around 100 social homes are now nearing completion and once the development is fully completed it will provide around 1,000 new properties on a 37-hectare site. These will be made up of affordable, social and cost-rental homes.
Plans for the Fingal Coastal Way, a 32km greenway between Donabate and Balbriggan, reached a new milestone as the emerging preferred route was published and Fingal County Council is continuing to progress the project which when completed will be part of a greenway route that will run from the southern county boundary at Sutton to the northern border with Meath.
Kuehne+Nagel Ireland offers its customers a collaborative white glove logistics service with a particular specialty in serving the biologics industry in Ireland
Since it first began Irish operations in 1996, Kuehne+Nagel Ireland has offered a full scope of freight forwarding and logistics services. The company’s experts provide integrated and competitive supply chain solutions, backed by state-of-the-art information technology tailored to customers’ specific requirements. Supported by Kuehne+Nagel’s global network, quality of service and integrated supply chain management solutions Kuehne+Nagel help its Irish customers turn their logistics challenges into a real competitive advantage.
With end-to-end supply chain expertise and dedicated industry specialists, the company fully understands what drives the sector, by carefully analysing the market and anticipating their logistics requirements. Included in its 510 staff working across 11 sites in Ireland, there are 34 ‘implants’ embedded at customer sites offering on-site logistics advice.
Kuehne+Nagel Ireland continues to invest in best-in-class Healthcare Logistics facilities with the opening of its latest site in Horizon Logistics Park, Dublin in July 2022. The site is strategically located near the Dublin airport and port. This new state of the art facility houses 34,000 pallet positions, stores between 15-25 degrees and
offers a whole range of value-add solutions to clients.
Additionally, Kuehne+Nagel Ireland have recently announced another new Healthcare Logistics facility in Cork, opening during Q3 2023 with 13,500 pallet positions in a brand new state of the art, sustainable facility with full temperature control between 15-25 degrees in place. The continued focus on investments in Healthcare ensures that Kuehne+Nagel are best placed to offer quality driven logistics services to our customers and their patients.
Ireland’s life sciences sector has a global reputation for operational and innovation excellence, and Kuehne+Nagel works with leading industry names involved in complex biologic manufacturing with specific transport requirements and with providers of high value medical devices. They trust us to help them on every step of the journey. Kuehne+Nagel’s customisable solutions, implemented by fully certified healthcare experts, decrease write-off , mitigates risks and delivers a safe and positive patient experience. Kuehne+Nagel supports its customers across the full product life cycle from pre-clinical to commercialisation offering real end to-end logistics support for their life saving medicines and medical devices. With early process involvement and access to frequent and current information, Kuehne+Nagel plays a vital role throughout the supply chain and becomes an extension of their customer. This in turn enables them to focus even more firmly on their prime mission and concern: saving and improving lives
Adam O’Sullivan, Commercial Director, Kuehne+Nagel Ireland
In 2018, Kuehne+Nagel acquired QuickSTAT, a market-leading provider of temperature and time-critical logistics solutions and an expert in managing global clinical trial logistics for all phases of the product lifecycle from research and drug development through to commercialisation. The company specialises in time and temperature shipping of clinical research samples, biologics, investigational drugs, clinical trial supplies and vaccines in order to help bring new drugs and medical protocols to market safely and quickly. QuickSTAT Ireland is a Center of Excellence for Direct-to-Patient, cell and gene therapy supply chains and is strategically located to provide logistics support for pharma and biotech companies across the country. Together, QuickSTAT and Kuehne+Nagel offer their expertise throughout the product life cycle, to remove logistics as a commercialization constraint to increase success rates and speed up scaling globally. Kuehne+Nagel is dedicated to playing its part in making drugs, therapies and medical devices accessible to patients worldwide-faster.
Fabian Ziegler is settling into his role at DCC Energy, where he took the reins in November 2022, and one of his plans is for the company to be “a little more extrovert”.
“It’s largely industry insiders that know this company,” says Fabian. With 26 years in the energy industry behind him, he has long been familiar with DCC. “I have the privilege to have had quite a few dealings with DCC—the first time was 2008—so I know the company, where it comes from and how it operates.” What he has seen, from that outside view, and since joining at the end of last year, is that “This company is about respect…both for customers and equally people who execute for those customers. DCC values customers service professionals, drivers, workers. It’s very genuine.”
FTSE 100 DCC plc entered the energy business in 1977, with its base in Drogheda, it has grown in Ireland and abroad, across its three main arms (Energy, Healthcare and Technology). DCC Energy alone employs 7,600 staff worldwide. In recent years, this global giant is beginning to engage with energy transition, and since joining the organisation, Ziegler has been consumed by “deeply thinking about what energy really means for DCC”.
What he has come up with is that “DCC is not a production system, it is a customer system. And we are
relatively product agnostic. Yes, at the minute we distribute a lot of liquefied petroleum gas, we distribute heating oil, transportation fuels… but also, at the moment over 20% of our income is coming from non-fossil sources of energy, from servicing and maintaining equipment, from renewable electricity.”
“The other key piece,” he notes, “is that we are an Irish company. And we need to provide substantial components to the future energy system of Ireland.” This involves, among other things, a move away from fossil fuels towards biofuels and boosting solar as a service through acquisitions. “We want to act as an energy transition partner to all our customers.”
When it comes to what sets DCC Energy apart from its competitors, Ziegler says, “It’s clearly our relationship with our customers. What makes us win or lose is the quality of delivery for our customers.”
He points to the long-standing customer relationships the company enjoys with its customers, some dating back more than 20 years, some even to the founding of the company.
Where they want to take that figure to next is in the process of being decided in an update to the 2022 ‘Leading with Energy’ strategy, a process Ziegler describes as taking this current strategy and “thinking it out to the end”. What he can share is his strong belief that the future of DCC Energy is renewable, and that it will have to become fully renewable faster than the old fossil fuel behemoths who have pinned their goals on declaring net zero emissions by 2050.
“Customers normally stay with us for life. And that’s also where we’ve come to with our strategy: delivery of service here and now needs to be the best it can be. But then also, we want a net zero customer offer that is affordable, that gives the customer access to lower carbon energy, and to energy the customer has more control over. That’s how we think about energy.”
According to Ziegler there are two key strands to the decarbonisation of the business—liquid and gas. On the liquid side the key product is
hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a diesel substitute that offers up to 90% CO2 savings. “The market for this is relatively established. We have a few supplier relationships that are eminently important, and we foster them, so the answer there is partnerships. We have strong relationships, and the intent is to build them out.”
HVO provided the energy to power generators at a host of highprofile events from Electric Picnic and Longitude music festivals to the Irish Open golf tournament, to the National Ploughing Championships (the biggest outdoor exhibition in Europe).
On the gas side, the future, as Ziegler sees it, is in renewable dimethyl ether (rDME). “It’s currently made at relatively small scale,” and he predicts, “In this product we might have to invest or co-invest with key partners. We have just announced a cooperation with Oberon Fuels to establish plants for rDME in Europe.”
Oberon will construct and operate the renewable DME production facilities and DCC Energy will commit to buying Oberon’s renewable DME as an offtake partner, to supply to its customers. Renewable DME blended with LPG can be used in existing infrastructure, making it a convenient solution to decarbonise operations for DCC’s customers.
Solar installation is an area where DCC is going in strong on the acquisition trail. “The plan is to have a leading European solar business and take 25-30 per cent of markets.” With recent acquisitions in France and The Netherlands, and more in the pipeline, he says, “It’s about acquiring leading installation positions to build Solar as a Service, as a broader business model that is all about delivering to customers.”
Operating in a category that is going through difficult times,
Ziegler talks about “the energy trilemma”—affordability, availability and sustainability impacts. “This trilemma is the way we think about energy. It also expresses that you cannot just focus on one dimension, you need balance across the three pieces.”
Helping customers through this difficult period includes advising on when and how much energy to buy and offering payment schemes.
waste to renewable energy in the form of biogas. For many years, DCC’S Flogas Ireland has been assisting a wide range of off-grid commercial customers to transition from heavy fuel oil and diesel to lower-carbon LPG as part of their energy transition journey. With its recent entry into the electricity market with a 100 per cent renewable offering, it is now perfectly positioned to assist its customers through their
“Some regulators do not yet fully buy into bio being such an important component of energy transition, but we believe, for the next few years, it’s probably the most affordable way to contribute to CO2 reductions,” Ziegler notes.
DCC’s Flogas Enterprise Solutions business was the first company in Ireland to provide biomethane through its partnership with Green Generation, an Irish company, using anaerobic digestion to convert agricultural and food
energy transitions.
For Ziegler, in his new role, working on shepherding through energy transition is a dream come true. “I do believe DCC is a unique energy company that can stand for better energy for everyone. I absolutely see this is possible in this company.” It’s a dream that is rooted in pragmatism, as he emphasises, “We don’t want to just be an idealistic company, we want to be grounded in connecting the nuts and bolts of getting the work done.”
HELPING CUSTOMERS THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT PERIOD INCLUDES ADVISING ON WHEN AND HOW MUCH ENERGY TO BUY AND OFFERING PAYMENTAndrew Graham, Managing Director, Certa, Fabian Ziegler, CEO, DCC Energy, Laura McDermott, Business Development Manager Sustainable Fuels, Certa and Cormac Durnin, Director of Operations, Certa, celebrate the transition of Certa’s entire Irish delivery fleet to hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel
When FleetConnect founder Patrick Cotter moved to Ratoath in 2015, he couldn’t find any decent WiFi. To solve the problem, he set up Rural WiFi, a family-run Irish company that’s passionate about connecting rural Ireland. Patrick had set up FleetConnect in 2008, a service that provides passenger WiFi services for major transport companies including Bus Eireann, Irish Rail, Translink, Aircoach, Dublin Bus to name a few, with over 5 million WiFi sessions a month. When he moved to Co Meath, he was shocked at the lack of broadband services available to people living outside Ireland’s major cities. “He felt like the major broadband providers had forgotten about rural Ireland and he wanted to change that. We started out providing services to rural areas and today, we offer 100% connectivity to customers across the country,” said Grace Tooher, Chief Operating Officer at Rural WiFi
Rural WiFi is, says Grace, the only broadband provider that offers every solution available on the market including fibre, 5G, wireless and satellite. Customer service is at the fore of the company. “When I joined Rural WiFi, we created a new
department called Customer Success. Five days after our sales rep puts through a sale, someone from our customer success division will ring the customer to check how they’re getting on. To facilitate that service, we have doubled both our sales and support team and we’ve seen our recurring customer base increase by 71% since May 2021.”
Customers at Rural WiFi aren’t just a number, they’re the company’s number one priority. “Our Customer Success division is working very well; since we introduced it, our returns have dropped from 40% to 14%.”
Patrick Cotter, Founder & CEO, Rural Wifi
to another network. “We tell our customers that ensuring they get the right solution for their particular needs is a journey. If the first solution doesn’t suit, we’ll keep working to ensure they’re ultimately satisfied.”
Rural WiFi also offers customers an install service. “Some of our customers are in rural areas and they might need an extra bit of help setting up. Whatever the customer needs, we provide.” says Founder & CEO Patrick Cotter. Thanks to contracts in place with FleetConnect, Rural WiFi has access to almost every network in the country. That means that if a customer has an issue with their service, maybe due to congestion, Rural WiFi can swap them over
To improve signal strength, Rural WiFi has designed special equipment to cater to the more rural areas. “With our panel antennas, we've seen signal strength in some houses improve by up to 300%, which is huge.”
The company launched its own fibre service in early 2022. “That side of the business is performing very well and we’re hoping to expand it in Q3 this year.” Rural WiFi is also targeting the B2B industry. “It’s a sector that we’re already active in; we often work with Netflix and festivals who work in remote areas and so would require our services. We’re keen to drive that side of the business this year and beyond.”
SOME OF OUR CUSTOMERS ARE IN RURAL AREAS AND THEY MIGHT NEED AN EXTRA BIT OF HELP SETTING UP. WHATEVER THE CUSTOMER NEEDS, WE PROVIDE
Meaghers Pharmacy
founder Oonagh O’Hagan is creating a retail experience founded in trust and communication
Meaghers is a pharmacy that wants to empower its customers to improve their health and wellbeing, shifting the dial from sickness to health, and transforming the image of community pharmacy as being a place to visit to remain well rather than a place to visit when you are sick. With that front of mind, all of Meaghers’ marketing communications to its customers and audiences are aligned with the overall business vision and come back to being a trusted source of
information and education. This has led to Meaghers becoming known for offering sound advice on topics such as hormonal health, gut health and pain management, as well as being trusted experts who will correct myths and misinformation.
This position in the Irish pharmacy market is largely down to their strong social media and online presence, having been among the first pharmacy retailers to bring their business online back in 2014. “We set it up in 2014, on the back of feedback from customers,” owner and Managing Director Oonagh O’Hagan notes, “because we’re always surveying our customers to see what else that they are looking for.” They found that city centre store customers, in a rush on their
lunch hour, wanted a speedy click and collect service, and thus began their digital journey.
The online offering quickly expanded, and with the onset of Covid reversing the impetus to drive customers into stores, it grew further. They fast-tracked the ability to process digital prescriptions through their logistics system when the legislation changed to allow it. They were also the first pharmacy in Ireland to offer a free video call service with a pharmacist during Covid.
Meaghers Pharmacy currently speak to 83.4k followers on Instagram, 50k on Facebook, as well as 3k on the newly launched TikTok platform. Each platform speaks to a different generation and audience.
“Instagram Lives are the most powerful and engaging way to speak to our audience, it is the most natural way to converse with them,” says Group Marketing Manager Yvonne Ellard. When it comes to disseminating information, compared to a real-life event with an audience of maybe 100 people, they regularly see up to 500 people tuning in and anything up to 29,000 views afterwards.
“Our customers can reach out to our team of experts here in Meaghers and have their questions answered. We feel social media has made the pharmacist much more accessible and the relationship we have built with our customers encourages trust enabling them to discuss sensitive topics and receive the best advice from a qualified professional or be referred, as necessary.”
During Covid, their “finger on the pulse” allowed them to reach out and correct a lot of misinformation. As O’Hagan puts it, they felt the role of the pharmacies was to be “a calm voice in all of that madness and chaos”.
Somewhat to the surprise of the team, informative email campaigns—long reads based around education—have turned out to be some of the strongest performing marketing tools in terms of engagement. “That was a real learning experience for us,” Ellard notes. “Customers were eager to access accurate, education led information.”
Some of the issues they find customers have a huge appetite for information around include menopause, fertility, anxiety, stress and digestive/gut health and skin health. They recently launched a new in-store concept SkinLab at the Churchtown store, which offers a place for customers to come in for skin diagnostics and treatments,
and advice on how to use products correctly as well as stocking several cosmeceutical skincare brands such as Image Skincare, Dermalogica, Murad and Skinceuticals.
Their ethos across all their customer engagement is demystifying, breaking down information into digestible chunks and empowering better-informed customers to make their own decisions.
“We see a huge online offline experience where people do the research online and come in to speak to us in store and vice versa, they’ll come in and speak to you, and then they’ll buy online. It is very fluid,” says O’Hagan.
Of the two separate parts of the business, prescriptions and retail, there are nine stores in the Dublin area, and O’Hagan estimates on average 50% of the retail business comes from online, jumping up to 80% around Black Friday offerings.
While they see a demand for expanding geographically across the county, O’Hagan says that for the moment, logistically it suits them to remain Dublin-based, with expansion focused on the breadth of their offering.
“We have a very loyal customer— 60% are returning customers—and they want more brands and more products,” O’Hagan notes. The mother and baby category is one area in which she intends to expand, requiring more space and stockkeeping units (SKUs) in order to provide the wide product offering that is in demand. They have just signed a lease on a second warehouse, doubling their space.
An initiative of which O’Hagan is particularly proud is their work with Prof. Suzanne Norris, a consultant hepatologist/gastroenterologist. Though this innovative partnership, they have brought screening for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) out into pharmacies and offered it to Type 2 diabetes patients on their books—a group at high risk of this disease. The painless, non-invasive scan can quickly uncover this silent killer—left untreated it can lead to cirrhosis of the liver.
In a serendipitous turn of events, O’Hagan has also connected Prof. Norris with researchers in gut health and microbiome from King’s College London, whose field of study has impacts of interest to her. Connecting medical and scientific professionals is a by-product of Meaghers efforts to engage with cutting edge research and healthcare professionals to better educate their customers, and which may end up leading to impactful and meaningful contributions in the healthcare field.
WE FEEL SOCIAL MEDIA HAS MADE THE PHARMACIST MUCH MORE ACCESSIBLE AND THE RELATIONSHIP WE HAVE BUILT WITH OUR CUSTOMERS ENCOURAGES TRUST ENABLING THEM TO DISCUSS SENSITIVE TOPICSOonagh O’Hagan, Founder & Managing Director, Meaghers Pharmacy Group
Trusted by over 300,000 customers nationwide, Panda is Ireland’s largest and most awarded sustainable waste management company.
We don’t just talk about sustainability. We do it. Here’s how:
Investing in technology & innovations we recycle, recover or repurpose all waste collected
We’re leading the way through our commitment to be Carbon Net Zero by 2040
We are committed to reducing our environmental impact by investing in sustainable fleets & processes
Over 1 million bin lifts are completed on time each week, nationwide
With a ‘zero disposal’ mission, Panda is focusing on the circular economy through recycling and resource recovery and switching to green energy to power its fleet
Panda is part of Beauparc Group, collectively managing 4 million tonnes of waste across Ireland, the UK, and the Netherlands per year, through collection, recycling, processing and recovery of resources.
With a strong focus on how that waste is processed and a ‘zerodisposal’ mission, Panda aims to help householders be greener by committing to converting up to 100 per cent of black bin waste into energy.
Panda is a circular economy company. As well as processing all the traditional recyclable items (glass, paper, card, plastic and aluminium) Panda sends electrical goods to be recycled and repurposed too. Panda and its parent company Beauparc own and operate 18 civic amenity sites across Ireland, where the general public can dispose of anything from general items to electronic goods and even hazardous materials.
Panda also collects, sorts and screens steel and wood - sending clean, reusable metals for use in construction, and turning timber into pallets and woodchip at a dedicated biomassto-energy facility which processes otherwise end-of-life wood. 70,000 tonnes of waste wood are converted into new products annually.
Processing 45,000 tonnes of material every year, Panda’s in-vessel compost facility is Ireland’s largest.
Organic material sent to anaerobic digestion and composting facilities results in biogas extraction, electricity, and fertiliser production.
For business customers, Panda’s experts conduct site audits to advise on their systems and develop bespoke integrated solutions for all sectors: retail, hospitality, manufacturing, construction, transport, health, education and more. More than 50,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste is recycled every year.
tonnes of SRF every year, used as an alternative to fossil fuels by industry facilities, notably in the kilns used in the production of cement. Panda is the largest fuel supplier to the cement-making industry in Ireland. Every four tonnes of Panda’s SRF product offsets three tonnes of imported coal.
Switching to greener transport is an important part of Panda’s sustainability strategy. Ireland’s first electric bin truck was introduced in 2020, reducing noise and air pollution in densely populated areas. eRCVs are powered by solar energy generated
FOR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS, PANDA’S EXPERTS CONDUCT SITE AUDITS TO ADVISE ON THEIR SYSTEMS AND DEVELOP BESPOKE INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS FOR ALL SECTORS: RETAIL, HOSPITALITY, MANUFACTURING, CONSTRUCTION, TRANSPORT, HEALTH, EDUCATION AND MORE
Panda gets creative when it comes to renewable energy, turning nonrecyclable items, food waste and biogas into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF), and sustainable electricity. Every year, 500,000 tonnes of low quality non-recyclable domestic and commercial waste is converted into enough RDF to power 100,000 homes and businesses.
SRF is produced mainly from dry commercial waste such as paper, card and wood. Shredding refuse down to 40mm pieces generates 350,000
on-site at facilities. With five electric bin trucks already operating, plans include further electrification of vehicles in urban areas By the end of 2023 we will have 25 CNG bin trucks and 5 tractor units in the fleet.
Panda is continually investing in ways to increase the amount of waste that can be recycled and find new techniques to recover the resource value from discarded materials, with R&D to be led through a new circular economy business park, Ireland’s first purpose-built, industrial resource recovery centre.
Since launching into the market, a decade ago, Pinergy’s USP has been its ability to assist its customers to better manage and understand their energy consumption and costs. Today it has evolved to supplying 100 per cent renewable electricity to all its customers. “That’s electricity that is certified as being green, and from renewable sources of wind, solar, and hydro,” notes David Slattery, Head of Marketing and Communications with Pinergy.
“Our ethos since the beginning is around helping you understand your energy consumption in your home or in your business, helping you to optimise that consumption. What that means is, if you understand how you’re using energy, and you have a heightened awareness of it, you’ll reduce your energy waste.”
Pinergy’s experts estimate that businesses are wasting on average 15 per cent of their energy consumption every year, through bad habits, lack of awareness, and lack of visualisation of their energy use. Pinergy’s brand promise is to turn that around by providing energy with insight.
The recent acquisition of Acutrace allows Pinergy to further
develop its analytical capabilities in terms of analysing other utilities (gas, water, air quality, waste) as well. “If you have the numbers, and know where your baseline is, then you can make yourself better from a utilities perspective, by reducing that consumption,” says Slattery. Another notable acquisition driving their offering forward is SolarElectric, one of Ireland’s fastest growing solar energy businesses, delivering Solar PV systems to the domestic, commercial and agricultural markets in Ireland.
“We’re working with a lot of businesses through our solar arm
designing and installing projects across the country. Your roof can actually be a revenue generator for your business, selling the excess back to us as our supplier,” says Slattery, adding, “We pay around 25 cents per kilowatt.”
An upcoming trend in the market is demand for electric vehicle (EV) ‘destination charging’ in business premises where people spend time, such as gyms, golf clubs and hotels. Slattery explains: “It drives footfall—given a choice between two hotels, an electric car driver will probably pick the one with a charger.”
They are also working with customers who are changing their company fleets into electric vehicles, advising on how they can manage those fleets and the charging requirements.
Pinergy are keen to share their insights and knowledge, and disseminate information through a number of channels, from a podcast series called Energy Matters, in partnership with The Currency, to a monthly insights report on the energy markets, and a social media content series profiling businesses who are making changes to be more sustainable. “It is all about making those choices, from very small choices to big strategic decisions,” says Slattery. “Our purpose as a business is to empower our customers to create their own sustainable energy future.”
Renewable energy providers Pinergy want to help their customers understand their energy usage, in order to optimise itDavid Slattery, Head of Marketing and Communications, Pinergy
YOUR ROOF CAN ACTUALLY BE A REVENUE GENERATOR FOR YOUR BUSINESS, SELLING THE EXCESS BACK TO US AS YOUR SUPPLIER
Your people trust you to put the best pension solution in place for them and with Zurich being voted number 1 for investment excellence since 2014 by Brokers Ireland*, you can trust our commitment to excellence.
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To find out more about the Zurich Master Trust visit zurichcorporate.ie, call 01 209 2299 or talk to a Financial Broker.
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Over the last decade Zurich Life Assurance plc has seen its market share almost double and has grown to become the second largest pension and investment provider in the Irish market, its reputation grows due to its active management strategy and the value it has to offer to larger companies. It has kept a consistent focus on supporting and helping customers to achieve their financial goals, delivering through a programme of year-on-year incremental improvements across different strands of the business including product development, technology, marketing communications and investment management.
In an industry perceived as resisting change, Zurich has helped break the mould by delivering new
and fresh approaches to its product development. Offering ‘easy access’ investment and savings products has helped to challenge the hold that traditional banks had on customers’ savings and deposits. This simple change, instigated by customer research, saw significantly more customers enter the savings and investment markets thereby giving customers the potential to generate better returns on their money.
“We drive value for our customers by appropriate default investment strategy and a constant track record of delivering outperformance on investment returns,” says Rose Leonard, Head of Corporate Sales and Customer Relationship Management at Zurich.
Whether it’s developing new ‘Master Trust’ retirement solutions for corporate and SME businesses, listening to life insurance customers’ needs for immediate funeral support, or providing female-focused cancer cover protection products, Zurich has never stood still. “The Zurich Master Trust is recognised in the marketplace as having a very high standard of governance and risk management,” Leonard notes.
The team at Zurich are focussed on making it easy for distributors and customers to partner with them, always looking for opportunities that make a compelling business
case. Technology and digitalisation are fundamental to this, with success stories including the Zurich Client Centre; online and apply for distributors; customer digital financial health check; and reducing post through online correspondence.
While Zurich operates primarily in the B2B arena, distributing products via financial advisors and corporate benefit providers, it retains a consistent focus on the end customer. Its B2B strategy emphasises long-term strategic partnerships rather than a focus on short-term transactional wins. When you become a customer of Zurich, you start a trusted relationship that could last for 40 years (or more) as you save, invest and retire with Zurich. While this relationship might have its infancy with a third-party distributor, Zurich ensures that its brand is there too.
Distributors recognise the importance of a long-term relationship and trust Zurich to deliver on its promises.
“It’s worth noting that Zurich doesn’t own an advisory arm,” Leonard concludes. “Many of our competitors do, but it is truly independent advisors who are recommending Zurich and the Zurich Master Trust.” And that says it all.
Professional financial advice should be sought if acting on the information contained in this article.
more and bigger customersRose Leonard, Head of Corporate Sales and Customer Relationship Management, Zurich
actionable insights, 24/7 threat detection, investigation, and response through its platform VisionX.
Recently floated on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) with a market capitalisation of stg£37 million, Smarttech247 is an awardwinning managed detection and response (MDR) and managed security operations provider, headquartered in Cork. It raised stg£3.67 million as part of the listing. The cybersecurity firm founded by Ronan Murphy in 2001 boasts a suite of bluechip clients.
Ronan Murphy, now executive chairman of Smarttech247, was succeeded as CEO by Raluca Saceanu, who has been with the company since it employed ten staff, just nine years ago.
She now heads up one of the top cybersecurity companies in Ireland, with a market share of 27% among the medium and large enterprises within Ireland, the UK and the US. Smarttech247 is a multi-award-winning Managed Detection & Response (MDR) company and a market leader in Security Operations.
Trusted by global organisations and combining threat intelligence with managed detection and response, the company provides
Over the last two years, the company has grown considerably. Smarttech247 was listed on the London Stock Exchange on December 15th 2022. Throughout the IPO journey, Smarttech247 managed to continue to grow and win more customers. Last year alone, the company grew by 75 per cent in terms of headcount and has had an average of 30 per cent year-onyear revenue growth and profitability growth.
Smarttech247 secures some of the world’s largest, blue-chip organisations and has a wide client base which spans across insurance, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, education, health and IT industries.
As a leading company in the field of cybersecurity services, Smarttech247 understand the ever-expanding threat landscape and its implications for businesses and organisations, including the geopolitical tensions and the proliferation of cyber warfare threats, the explosion of data generation, the
shortage of cybersecurity skills, and the increasing sophistication of cybercrime. Smarttech247 works closely with its clients to understand their dynamic risk exposure and through its platform VisionX, the organisation helps customers fortify their defences, ensuring their resilience in the face of potential attacks that could compromise their operations and compromise sensitive information.
aluca has huge plans for expansion and innovation within the industry, she says “With cyber threats becoming increasingly more sophisticated, innovation is critical to stay ahead and keep companies secure. It is important for us that organisations leverage their current technology stack to mitigate risks and strengthen their defences. Our MDR platform VisionX does just that. VisionX provides 24/7 coverage across attack surfaces to detect, investigate and stop threats before they impact your organisation.”
VisionX is not just an MDR platform – VisionX has dynamic risk capabilities, cybersecurity validation features, and incident containment alongside a world-class incident response competency.
Smarttech247 understand that innovation is critical to stay ahead of cyber threats and keep companies secureRaluca Saceanu, CEO, Smarttech247
AIB Group operates three core segments in Ireland and the UK, which are Retail Banking, Capital Markets and AIB UK. AIB has a full suite of products and services to support our business customers of all sizes and sectors to grow and thrive. With 64% of all SME classified as family businesses, AIB’s physical presence in 170 branches across the country supports growth and investment in the local communities we serve.
The withdrawal of Ulster Bank and KBC is leading to a reshaping of the Irish banking sector and has provided an extraordinary opportunity for AIB to build on our existing market leading franchise. We have supported businesses moving to AIB by making the journey as clear and straightforward as possible.
The Irish economy emerged from the pandemic in very good shape, however inflationary pressures will have a knock-on impact on this positive sentiment. We are acutely aware that each sector has unique challenges, but the increased cost of doing business due to energy inflation is omnipresent. Some sectors, such as transport, have continued to struggle with supply chain issues since the pandemic. Many of our business customers are challenged to set prices that can sustain the business whilst maintaining customer demand
for their goods and services. Helping customers become more energy efficient is a key focus for AIB. We have partnered with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) to bring customers the SBCI Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme (EELS). The scheme supports qualifying Irish businesses by making finance available and attractive for our customers to make more sustainable choices. We have introduced ‘Plan it with Purpose’ – an online sustainability hub and diagnostic toolkit for micro and small businesses.
WE ARE INVESTING SIGNIFICANTLY IN TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE OUR DIGITAL OFFERING FOR SMES. WE ALSO RECOGNISE THAT BUSINESSES SOMETIMES NEED TO SPEAK DIRECTLY WITH AN EXPERIENCED STAFF MEMBER TO DISCUSS THEIR BANKING NEEDS OR RESOLVE AN ISSUE
Research conducted on behalf of AIB (by Amárach 2022) shows sustainability is on the agenda for 74% of SMEs with 60% saying it has become more important in the past 12 months. As a recognised leader of sustainability in Ireland, AIB is committed to supporting our customers, and the communities in which we operate, to make the transition to a low carbon economy. The Amárach research shows SMEs want to be associated with business which are embracing sustainability.
We have several partnerships to support business in this space, with Chambers Ireland, DCU National Centre for Family Business, Enterprise Ireland, The SBCI and Enterprise Nation. In addition, we
have partnered with Autolease Fleet Management Limited which trades under the Nifti brand. This is a really exciting venture for AIB to offer innovative financial solutions to our 3.2 million customers and to grow our green lending, including to customers who want to make the switch to electric and hybrid vehicles.
We are investing significantly in technology to enhance our digital offering for SMEs. We also recognise that businesses sometimes need to speak directly with an experienced staff member to discuss their banking needs or resolve an issue. We also invest heavily in recruitment and training of our business banking teams to ensure they can support our businesses when they need it.
As the 2023 Business Bank of the Year, AIB is committed to supporting its customersJohn Brennan, Head of SME for Retail Banking, AIB
As a global biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca develops innovative medicines across a range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, cardiovascular, renal & metabolic disease, infectious disease, respiratory & immunology and rare disease. Across two major manufacturing sites in Ireland, the organisation produces the majority of its global supply of rare disease medicines exported to benefit patients worldwide. As the winner of this year’s Life Sciences Company of the Year, Dan Wygal, Country President at AstraZeneca Ireland, said: “We are delighted and honoured for AstraZeneca to be recognised as the Life Sciences Company of the Year. Our team across AstraZeneca and Alexion, our rare disease division, collaborate with great energy and passion to serve the patients within Ireland and around the globe.”
In 2021, the company acquired Alexion, a rare disease company with a large presence in Ireland. That acquisition facilitated both their entry into rare diseases and the establishment of Ireland as a long-term strategic driver of their global strategy, as demonstrated by the company’s subsequent announcement to build an active pharma ingredient (API) commercialisation facility in Blanchardstown. This API facility will increase AstraZeneca’s capability for late-stage development and early commercial
supply of small molecule active pharma ingredients to meet the future growing drug pipeline. It’s very much a ‘next generation’ facility designed in line with our industry-leading de-carbonisation efforts, says Dan.
In 2022, the company’s commitment to Ireland continued to expand with the announcement of a €65 million development programme in Ireland across both its Blanchardstown and Athlone sites to install new Drug Substance production equipment and warehousing facilities to support ambient and cold storage at both sites; and the construction of a Manufacturing Sciences & Technology Lab at College Park.
Working towards its ‘Ambition Zero Carbon’ plans, the company remains on track to have fully converted its fleet to electric
vehicles in 2024 and several large scale projects have been launched to dramatically reduce energy use and water wastage in Ireland
AstraZeneca has played a unique role in its contribution to Irish health. In addition supplying over 30 medicines across its therapeutic areas, it provided 1.4 million doses of its Covid vaccine to Irish patients during the pandemic at no profit. “Our pandemic response is something we’re particularly proud of.” This level of commitment is carried through across all areas of the business. “We have a broad portfolio focused on unmet needs. We focus on bringing these therapies forward and ensuring the health system capabilities are created to appropriately screen for timely diagnosis and early intervention to ensure the best possible patient outcomes.”
At AstraZeneca, the team is driven by a clear purpose – to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines. “It is only by pioneering new areas of science – through our constant drive to innovate and excel – we can address the vast unmet medical need and transform the lives of patients. And recent scientific advances give good reason for hope. Through enhancing our understanding of disease biology and uncovering new ways of targeting the drivers of disease we are rapidly advancing the next generation of therapeutics across our main therapy areas.”
Nestlé Ireland is proud to be gold accredited by the Irish Centre for Diversity since 2020.
“We are one of very few companies that have been through the gold accreditation,” says Patricia Malone, Senior Human Resources Business Partner, Nestlé Ireland. “It is best in class in the market around diversity and inclusion.”
The Irish Centre for Diversity works in partnership with organisations across Ireland at all stages of the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) journey. The Irish Centre for Diversity offers Ireland’s only EDI mark for Irish businesses. Supported by Ibec, the EDI Mark,
enables businesses to be known as ‘Investors in Diversity’, providing them with a framework for success over three levels – Bronze, Silver and Gold, and enables them to measure, improve and recognise efforts to foster equality, diversity and inclusion within the organisation.
“To achieve the accreditation Nestlé Ireland was measured on five main pillars,” Malone explains. “Pillar 1 - Diverse and Inclusive Leadership; Pillar 2 - Policy, Procedure and Process; Pillar 3 - Recruitment, Retention and Progression; Pillar 4 - Recording and Monitoring; and Pillar 5Impact on External Diversity.”
In 2022, Nestlé Ireland launched an inclusive leadership programme called Thrive, which was rolled out across all leadership teams in the UK&I market. “As part of the accreditation process you have to demonstrate inclusive leadership,” Malone notes.
The six streams of Thrive are: Trust and psychological safety; Hack the bias; Radical candour; Include to Innovate; Value Difference; and Equal playing field. “That has been rolled out across all our leadership teams in the UK&I market and the teams are embedding that in their way of working from a leadership perspective. It is really positive and has been really well-received.”
Nestlé Ireland’s KPI’s in 2022 were to have gender balance at leadership team level, as well as at Level 4+, and ethnic representation at leadership team level.
In 2022 Nestlé Ireland achieved gender balance in its leadership team in Ireland, reflecting gender balance within the wider team, which has a 60 per cent female to 40 per cent male split. Nestlé Ireland also met its goal for ethnic minority at leadership level in 2022, with 3 per cent representation.
In 2022 Nestlé globally launched the ‘This is Me’ campaign asking employees to voluntarily provide details on their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, identity and disability, if applicable.
“To date in Ireland, Nestlé has received responses from 31 per cent of the team and this information is treated with the highest level of
transition at work—from time off for surgery to changing names on systems and email, and guidance for managers and teams around terminology to use and pronoun changes.
Nestlé’s D&I action/development plan is embedded through training, communications, regular meetings and updates. It is reviewed as part of Nestlé’s operational master plan (OMP), planning and actions for each year in January, when D&I priorities for the coming year are aligned.
A policy working group develops and defines Nestlé Ireland’s policies, which are approved by the UK&I Nestlé leadership team. Since receiving Gold accreditation from the Irish Centre for Diversity in 2020 Nestlé Ireland has implemented further inclusive policies that recognise its diverse workforce. Examples of this are menopause guidance; a bank holiday exchange
newsletters; regular agenda slot at monthly staff meetings (huddles). There are regular D&I updates at Nestlé Ireland’s monthly Town Hall meeting. Internal weekly communications include D&I topics.
Several staff are accountable, Malone explains. In addition to a dedicated Nestlé in the Market Inclusion Manager, based in the UK, there is an Inclusion and Belonging (I&B) specialist, covering UK&I.
Locally in Ireland there is an Inclusion & Belonging, Health & Wellness (I&B H&W) committee which consists of six team members. “The Irish committee group meet each month to plan activities and review performance against action plan. Two members of the Irish leadership team are part of this committee.”
Initiatives to encourage good practice in diversity are also undertaken with supplier and partner organisations. “D&I criteria form part of the contract for services and Nestlé Ireland monitor this via contract monitoring meetings,” says Malone. Nestlé have now partnered with Weconnect International (womenled businesses), MSDUK (ethnic minority-led businesses), OutBritain (LGBT+ businesses) and Social Enterprise UK who include disabled community-led businesses. Nestlé Ireland tracks its spending with these businesses and encourage any local spending to find suppliers through these routes.
confidentiality but will be used to form its Irish Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) roadmap for the future,” she says. “It also helps leadership to understand if staff have silent or invisible disabilities and inform policies for the future around this.”
Nestlé also have a transitioning at work policy which supports trans employees through their
policy whereby staff can choose to work a religious holiday and take off a different day; and the discrimination violence harassment policy was further revised from a previous version.
D&I policies are communicated to staff through inclusion in induction materials; I&B Hub on the intranet; signposted in regular communications such as
Nestlé has seven Employee Resource Networks, including an LGBTQI+ Network, which is called Proud@Nestlé, an Eradicating Racism Network, Gender Equity Network, Who I Am, Women in Engineering, NestAbility Group, and a Parent Support Network. “Because the Networks are typically across the entire UK&I business, monthly meetings tend to take place virtually,” says Malone, “with an annual event where members can come together in real life.”
D&I CRITERIA FORM PART OF THE CONTRACT FOR SERVICES AND NESTLÉ IRELAND MONITOR THIS VIA CONTRACT MONITORING MEETINGSPatricia Malone, Senior Human Resources Business Partner, Nestlé Ireland
Damien McCann, Chief Commercial Officer, Viatel
Viatel Technology Group is a complete digital services provider with over 26 years’ experience delivering fully managed security, networking, cloud and communications services.
“From a buyer perspective, we are now the only cloud operator that offers full AWS, Microsoft Azure and private cloud capabilities to our customers, it’s a quite a unique proposition,” notes Damien McCann, Chief Commercial Officer, Viatel. However beyond marrying the full cloud stack offering with the traditional offering in terms of communications, digital services, and cyber security solutions, what sets Viatel apart from its competitors is the team members’ passion for supporting customers. “It’s proven, we are winning in the market and experiencing double-digit organic growth, on top of our mergers and acquisitions.”
The recent acquisition of Sunguard Availability Services (Ireland) Limited (Sungard AS) uniquely positions Viatel as the most comprehensive cloud, connectivity, cybersecurity and digital transformation solutions provider in the Irish market, alongside a growing footprint of international customers. Sungard AS delivers innovative and critical services from bases in Ireland, the US and India. This is the eighth acquisition by Viatel since 2020. Last year saw the acquisition of Digital Transformation Services provider, ActionPoint. The Limerick company provides cutting edge software development and managed IT services to over 500 customers, including many of Ireland’s and the UK’s leading enterprise and public sector organisations such as Munster Rugby, Chill Insurance, National Lottery, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Ireland’s leading Credit Unions.
300 employees and projects annual revenues to exceed €90 million.
The company is committed to creating a positive and supportive workplace culture. Viatel places great importance on organisational culture and employee wellbeing, with initiatives to foster an inclusive and diverse work environment.
Since Covid, it has treated its offices in Dublin, Limerick and Dundalk as regional hubs, and does not require attendance. An international working policy allows staff the freedom to work from wherever they need to, with secure IT and VPNs to dial in to the Viatel network. “That’s how we attract and retain international multi-cultural people,” says McCann.
A new flexitime initiative has also been rolled out for the summer months, allowing staff to work four days and take Fridays off, whilst retaining 100 per cent of their salary.
With their Gender Pay Gap reporting showing a 4 per cent gap,
Strategic acquisitions and internally developed capabilities have built Viatel into a leadingedge digital technology partner empowering over 4,000 Irish and multinational customers.
Following its most recent acquisition, Viatel numbers over
McCann says they were pleased to be below the industry standard, stating, “We’ve done some good work on that, but still have work to do.” With a 50/50 gender split at senior leadership level, he notes, “It creates a more dynamic environment for us to operate in.”
Viatel offers a full cloud stack offering, but its passion for supporting its customers and staff is what sets it apart
WITH A 50/50 GENDER SPLIT AT SENIOR LEADERSHIP LEVEL, IT CREATES A MORE DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT FOR US TO OPERATE IN
Aramark Facilities Management bring expertise, thought leadership and innovation that transform facility management to help our clients achieve their goals.
Aramark Ireland provides an expansive range of Integrated Facilities Management services to clients across the country. The Aramark Ireland umbrella includes a property services division, Avoca, a workplace solutions division, energy services and a food division; within those, the company offers bespoke solutions for over 450 client locations across the island of Ireland. “Depending on the client’s requirements, we build a solution for them that creates the services they need on their sites. A good example would be Three Ireland – we created a fully integrated solution for them which includes their energy and property management, on-site cleaning and their teams for various functions including reception, security, etc,” said
Facilities Services are based on five core pillars. “The first is ‘Innovate every Day’ – innovation is a core element of the strategy that we build for our clients. They might have specified something, but we strive to ensure we bring something innovative to the table too. The other core pillar is digital transformation. We were recently recognised as the overall winner at the Facilities Management awards for innovation in technology and systems end users for Aramark AWIX technology. We work hard to ensure we ’ re using that digital transformation for the correct reasons.” The third pillar is fuelled by people.
centred around ‘Safe Today, Smarter Tomorrow’. “We’re committed to Health & Safety and making sure all our teams on site are not only going to work safely, but they’re also coming home from work safely.”
Our new hybrid workplace has, says Jason, impacted the type of service clients are now looking for. “That bespoke service we offer is only becoming more bespoke. Many of our clients aren’t sure what the solution is for their real estate or for their headcount, so we need to be able to make their buildings more connected than ever before.”
In the first seven months
Jason
Keegan,Business & Industry IFM Operations Director at Aramark.
Each FM contract specification is bespoke and built for each client. The company also delivers on value and is fully committed to delivering on customer experience. In Ireland, Aramark employs approx 6,500 people across the island of Ireland, in 450 locations. The company’s FM division caters for almost every industry in the country.
All of Aramark’s Integrated
ARAMARK IRELAND OFFERS BESPOKE SOLUTIONS FOR OVER 450 CLIENT LOCATIONS ACROSS THE ISLAND OF IRELAND. DEPENDING ON THE CLIENT’S REQUIREMENTS, WE BUILD A SOLUTION FOR THEM THAT CREATES THE SERVICES THEY NEED ON THEIR SITES
“Without those 6,500 employees, our service doesn’t come to life. Through staff development and training, we equip our employees with the tools they need to provide the best FM services. The fourth pillar is the greater good, our ESG and sustainability. We call that our ‘Live Well, Be Well’ programme, which is our global initiative.”
The fifth and final pillar is
of this year, Aramark has grown its revenue by 18% in new business. “Our pipeline for new business has never been stronger, with a retention rate of 98%. Growth is the aim, but ensuring it’s the right growth with the right clients is key. We strive to create the most innovative service solution for our clients and that’s something we will continue to do.”
Corlytics assists financial firms in avoiding regulatory fines and enforcements – which cost money and can cause reputational damage. The easiest way of bringing to life Corlytics’ innovative solution is to tell the story of one client and how Corlytics helped them solve their problem and gain some great benefits.
They operate in the payments space and offer a simple way to solve a complex payments infrastructure problem, with a few lines of code being used to enable a payment gateway that does not need updating each time one of their clients upgrades or changes their business or business solution.
and then cutting and pasting the information into spreadsheets. This method carries various risks including manual handling error, missing vital regulatory published content and triage of regulatory action with no easy-to-follow audit of those actions or inactions.
To radically reduce all regulatory risk types and feed into the wider policies and actions, Corlytics’ built a library of digitised regulatory content and provided risk rated data with regulatory monitoring, including items showing ‘signals of intent’. This solved their issue, that of having difficulty understanding all of its regulatory obligations.
We adopted a two phased approach Phase one was building a library of regulations
• Through AI as part of the Corlytics solution, the client has been able to access and extract regulatory information specific to payment service providers (PSPs).
• AI also provides risk rating across regulatory content.
• All regulatory content has machine translation applied so that all content can be read in the original published language and in English.
• Using robotic processing automation (RPA), the Corlytics solution provides automated acquisition and routing of updated information on regulatory content to the client and its GRC system.
• Corlytics has delivered a 700% efficiency gain for the client, in the simple ingestion of regulatory content. Previously, it had taken the client an average of 16 hours to identify, impact assess and then ingest a single regulation. Now, this process takes two hours.
With payments and cross border transactions increasingly heavily regulated, our client’s biggest regulatory issue was its difficulty in understanding all its regulatory obligations, globally. The client was spending significant resources on manually acquiring regulatory information from multiple websites, in both English and other languages,
to cover multiple jurisdictions, including all the relevant regulatory content in a digital format with an API into their governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) solution. Phase two was the regulatory monitoring (or horizon scanning with risk rating) to continuously scan regulatory content to provide updates and show emerging regulatory themes.
• There has also been an efficiency gain in regulatory compliance management through the digitisation of regulatory content making the distribution, impact assessment and on-going compliance monitoring tasks much more streamlined across the entire compliance team.
• Compliance staff can now focus on higher value tasks, including regulatory intelligence and strategic planning, adding increased robustness to a firm in high growth.
this year’s
helps
firms
THE EASIEST WAY OF BRINGING TO LIFE CORLYTICS’ INNOVATIVE SOLUTION IS TO TELL THE STORY OF ONE CLIENT AND HOW CORLYTICS HELPED THEM SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM AND GAIN SOME GREAT BENEFITS
We are delighted to have won Best Irish Brand 2023.
We look forward to continuing to delight your taste buds with our mouth-wateringly delicious chocolate creations for many years to come.
www.lilyobriens.ie
Irish chocolate brand Lily O’Brien’s is conquering export markets and has its sights set on America next, says Managing Director, Michelle Vance
Lily O’Brien’s manufacture premium chocolates and desserts in the heart of Co Kildare. Started from a kitchen table by founder Mary Ann O’Brien, in 1992, and named after her daughter Lily, the business has grown to position excellent Irish chocolate on the world map.
Over the past 30 years Lily O’Brien’s Chocolates has established itself as one of Ireland's best-loved chocolatiers. The passion for chocolate that first inspired Mary Ann O'Brien is still present in every aspect of the business and remains at the very core of
The R&D team and new product development (NPD) teams meet every week to look at food trends, new recipes, new packaging formats, and different aspects of the business, whether it’s industry requirements, or consumer needs.
“The brand strategy over the last number of years is to grow the core business, which is box chocolate, but also to bring more chocolate occasions into the brand,” Vance notes. “It's creating more chocolate indulgent moments in people's lives.”
MANY CONSUMERS AROUND THE WORLD GET TO TASTE LILY O’BRIEN’S CHOCOLATE EVERY YEAR, AND THAT HAS A HUGE BENEFIT TO BUILDING BRAND AWARENESS
what Lily O'Brien's do. The highly experienced team are passionate about creating innovative chocolate recipes using the finest quality ingredients, which are then shipped to many corners of the globe.
“As a brand Lily O’Brien’s is incredibly proud of everything that we do,” says Michelle Vance, Managing Director, Lily O’Brien’s. “We have a small team here who are incredibly passionate about the brand and the product that we put into the market. We hope that the product brings as much joy to consumers as it does to us.”
The team created the concept of ‘Chocolate Desserts’, which is now an established segment withing the premium boxed chocolate market, and its premium chocolate share bags are another innovation which has delivered strong growth.
Most recently a new range of Chocolate Truffles, launched in September 2022, has had very positive results and feedback; the new Salted Caramel truffles was voted Product of the Year 2023 in the chocolate category in a survey of 8,000 people across UK & Ireland by Kantar.
Lily O’Brien’s success is both national and international, with a spread across global markets such as a brand presence in Kuwait, and the US in their sights. It is the largest indigenous brand in the premium chocolate market in Ireland and is the third largest brand in the premium chocolate category.
With 85 per cent of their business already in export, Lily O’Brien’s supplies some of the world’s largest retailers including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury. What is most interesting, and beneficial to the brand, is that it also supplies 20 different airline customers, as well as rail and premium hotel customers, with luxury potted desserts and chocolate products. “Many consumers around the world get to taste Lily O’Brien’s chocolate every year, and that has a huge benefit to building brand awareness.”
Todd Winge, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Lilly Kinsale
Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) has two sites in Ireland – its high-technology manufacturing campus in Kinsale and its Global Business Solutions (GBS) centre in Little Island, Co Cork. A third Irish site in Limerick was announced recently. When it becomes operational in 2025, Lilly’s Limerick site will operate at 35% lower energy intensity, use 40% less water and produce 15% less waste when compared to traditional pharma manufacturing sites.
In Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry, Lilly’s campus in Kinsale is exceptional in that it consists of two different sites within the one campus boundary – one site uses chemical synthesis technology, and the other site uses biotechnology to make active ingredients for Lilly medicines. “Back in 2009, we made the decision to build a biologics or biotech facility next to our chemical facility. Biotech
has really come to the fore in the past 2 decades, so Lilly was keen to harness that potential and investigate what we could do with it,” said Todd Winge, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Lilly Kinsale. Having those two facilities on the one site makes Lilly unique in Ireland. “In the last few months, we have also added peptide technology. To have all three technologies within one campus boundary is exceptional, not just nationally, but on a global scale too.”
people develop. The “Emerge” programme looks to support people that are showing high potential. Before they move into leadership positions, they’re given the type of support that will empower them once they make that transition into leadership. For our early career professionals, we have our “L.E.A.P.” development programme in Kinsale which is all about learning through experience to advance your potential. We have an extensive and ongoing graduate
WITHOUT THE TALENT OF OUR STAFF, WE’RE UNABLE TO DELIVER UPON OUR OBJECTIVES, SO IT’S IMPERATIVE THAT WE ENCOURAGE THEM AND THAT THEY FEEL ENABLED TO BE THE BEST THEY CAN POSSIBLY BE.
Lilly has always maintained a strong commitment to operational excellence. “A good example would be one of our facilities in the biotech side of the campus, which is dedicated to making one of Lilly’s key medicines. Over the 11 years of its operation, every single gram of medicine completed in that facility has gone to a patient - that is a phenomenal record in our business. I think that example really demonstrates the operational excellence we have instilled across all facilities.”
Supporting staff throughout their career development is key, says Todd. “Lilly has a range of programmes available to help
recruitment programme for many years. Without the talent of our staff, we’re unable to deliver upon our objectives, so it’s imperative that we encourage them and that they feel enabled to be the best they can possibly be.”
A huge focus is also put on sustainability across Lilly Ireland. The Kinsale site boasts the largest solar farm in Ireland which provides solar energy to the facility. “We’re focused on trying to reduce our carbon footprint and improve our green credentials. We have several initiatives in place that reflect our commitment to sustainability and many more in the pipeline.”
Changing industry to join Schneider Electric at the height of a global pandemic is something that Rhonda Doyle relished. A believer in lifelong learning with an innate sense of curiosity, she made connections, grew her networks and quickly flourished in her new role.
“I definitely have a belief in transferable skills,” she says. “People often ask me about changing industry; for me that wasn’t even a roadblock, or in my mind, because I had moved laterally a lot through eBay. I had got used to moving and starting on new things, starting with new teams, so I was probably a bit more open then to whatever came up.”
What came up with Schneider Electric was an opportunity to work for an organisation that felt inspiring to her. “I have always said, unless I’m really stuck to pay my bills, I need to work for a company where I believe in their overarching mission or vision. When I started to see what Schneider does, globally, for sustainability, and the purpose and mission, that was something I really bought into.”
Researching the company she was impressed by their commitment to D&I and ensuring that this element of the company is promoted is important to her to ensure they continue to attract female candidates in what traditionally
was a male-dominated industry.
Prior to joining Schneider Electric, Rhonda had spent 17 years at eBay. She joined the company as a supervisor at a time when it was just setting up in Ireland, as one of the first employees where she grew her career, moving up through the ranks to Director of Global Operations and Programme Management. Whilst at eBay, Rhonda was the business Sponsor for eBay’s Diversity & Inclusion Charter, and this topic remains something that is very important to her at Schneider.
“As a business, we continue to focus on hiring for diversity. We’re constantly looking at our numbers. And for us, diversity is everything, but particularly with regard to rebalancing in the female space. Our numbers are looking really good for this year, which is great, but that takes
a lot of leadership, focus and commitment, and for that to be felt from the top down.”
One thing that can make a huge difference when it comes to helping women progress their careers is having a mentor, and maintaining an open door policy as a mentor and adviser is important to Doyle, cognisant of how much it has benefitted her in her career journey. “When I reflect back on my career, so many people supported me. Even when I didn’t report to them, they gave me their time.”
With the business in Ireland growing threefold, talent acquisition has been a focus of the past year. “It was really tough last year to hire, but we did rigorous planning as a leadership team,” she says.
“With the business growing, we were able to keep up with the right resourcing to deliver on that strategy.”
Although Doyle advocates for careers in STEM, somewhat surprisingly her undergraduate degree is in Philosophy, something she credits with giving her a strong basis in critical thinking. A sense of curiosity is another attribute she recalls as being helpful to navigate her new role when she joined Schneider Electric in January 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic.
Having been in a global role for some time at eBay, meeting her new colleagues mainly through the medium of a
Critical thinking has stood her in good stead, but it’s the power of making connections that is at the heart of Rhonda Doyle’s way of workingRhonda Doyle, Senior Director Field Services Operations UK&I, Schneider Electric
computer screen didn’t phase her one bit. She credits her innate curiosity about how teams work, and her need to figure out how all the parts connected, with helping her to dig in and build her network within the company. That and making sure to build
improve operations and further increase people development, ultimately ensuring a best-inclass service. In November 2022, she was promoted to Senior Director and now leads Field Services Operations for the UK and Ireland. She also has full
in the office. Breakfast meetings and learning events “give people a reason to come in, and start to realise that they missed the collaboration with their colleagues”.
in time for “shooting the breeze” on every video call. “Working remotely and meeting remotely are absolutely skills,” she avers.
Initially tasked with leading the company’s Services, Projects and Back Office Operations teams in Ireland, maintaining service for customers in the region, Doyle’s role also included partnering with the Irish leadership team on strategies to grow the business,
responsibility for all back-office functions for the two regions, which covers a range of elements including order processing, invoicing and scheduling.
CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
Now, with a flexible working policy still in place, she sees the challenge to lead teams effectively, in this new hybrid working world, as being how to create moments for connection
A big believer in continuous education, she is a qualified coach, and was so impressed with an INSEAD programme, focusing on innovation and strategy, that the company partnered on last year with global Schneider colleagues, that she is returning for more, after booking herself in to upskill further in Strategy and Finance to complement her already powerful soft skills attributes.
“I always say to people, as you develop in your role, if you want to become a senior leader, it becomes less about the technical skill, of course that is important, you need to know enough to get by - but it becomes more about business strategy, influencing people and leadership.”
WHEN I REFLECT BACK ON MY CAREER, SO MANY PEOPLE SUPPORTED ME. EVEN WHEN I DIDN’T REPORT TO THEM, THEY GAVE ME THEIR TIME
At age 17, Colm left school and joined the civil service in Merrion Street, following in his father’s career footsteps. While working there, he started a sideline of working in the markets at the weekends. During this whole period, he also played in a family Irish music group seven nights a week in Jury’s hotel.
In 1982, with just a €10,000 overdraft, Colm established Bargain King Discount Stores in Dundrum. After 12 months, he bought the freehold of the building and after a few years the name of the trading business changed to “Carroll’s of Dublin“. In 1986, Colm opened his first city centre store on O’Connell Street, which he later bought in 1996. Innovation and an ability to transition has been at the heart of the business from the beginning; In the early noughties, Colm took notice of Dublin’s growing reputation as a tourist destination.
the helm. Again, that was a deliberate move to bring the company forward and ensure it continues to evolve and innovate for the future.”
The market was being poorly served at retail level and so he pivoted the business to selling souvenirs. “That decision to leave his stable civil service career was brave. That willingness to take risks, along with the ability to adapt and evolve, is the reason why our business has survived despite economic downturns and pandemics,” said Peter Hyland, Group CEO. Peter took over as CEO almost five years ago. “Colm made a decision to move to a Chairman role and bring in an external CEO to take
When Covid hit, Ireland’s tourism industry came to a standstill. “As well as our 19 stores, Carroll’s also has a significant property portfolio. Both businesses were negatively affected by the pandemic. At that stage, our shops were 95% tourism based so we knew we had to adapt the retail model.” A huge effort was put into refocusing the business onto what Carroll’s does well, which is Irish gifts. The look and feel of all stores were transformed, with the focus very much on the Irish domestic gifting sector. “Traditionally, Carroll’s was associated with Irish souvenirs such as magnets and keyrings. Colm softened the brand image and began reducing our traditional ranges in favour of new, branded and modern Irish design products.” The strategy worked. “Our brand marketing promise, Gifts with Gra, is about demonstrating that we sell quality Irish products at affordable prices. Today, 75% of our suppliers are Irish.” Those higher premium Irish gifts have broadened the customer base and also sell well to tourists. “We had to be careful not to alienate our existing customer base but also expand our domestic Irish clientele. Even after 40 years in the gifting industry, Colm was keen to change something that technically wasn’t broken and that bravery has paid dividends.”
Recently, Carroll’s launched ‘Failte’, an initiative that gives small Irish manufacturers the opportunity to have their products stocked online and in Carroll’s stores nationwide. “Again, it’s something that demonstrates the innovation that’s been behind the brand for 40 years.”
THAT WILLINGNESS TO TAKE RISKS, ALONG WITH THE ABILITY TO ADAPT AND EVOLVE, IS THE REASON WHY OUR BUSINESS HAS SURVIVED DESPITE ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS AND PANDEMICS
With over 30 years’ industry experience, Panda has grown from its small start with just two people in Slane, Co Meath, and is now part of the Beauparc Group utilities corporation, which employs over 3,000 people, is instrumental in managing 4 million tonnes of waste across Ireland, the UK, and the Netherlands per year, through collection, recycling, processing and recovery.
Panda provides essential services and utilities to the communities it serves every day, balancing customer satisfaction with environmentally sustainable practices.
The primary business of the Panda division has, over the years, expanded from a
local recycling service into Ireland’s largest and leading commercial and domestic waste management company.
Its fleet of over 200 refuse collection vehicles provide kerbside collections to 300,000 customers in Ireland. Utilising a fleet of over 300 HGVs, Panda transfers waste and recyclables to 3 material recovery facilities for processing and recovery. Operating nationwide, Panda manages 2 million tonnes of household and commercial waste in Ireland.
The activities of its parent Group now span domestic and commercial waste management; recycling collection and processing; logistics; green fuels and energy recovery, and with the ethos of sustainability behind
The Panda brand is widely known as Ireland’s leading waste management company, but the wider story is looking to the future, the circular economy
them, the Panda brand is at the leading edge of greener waste management.
In 2020, Panda introduced Ireland’s first ever fully electric, zero emission refuse collection vehicle (eRCV). The fully electric bin truck was the first of its kind for a municipal waste and recycling operator in Ireland. The introduction went hand in hand with the installation of solar panels powering the nation’s largest household recycling facility in Ballymount, which also serve to charge the electric vehicle, making the entire process of collecting and recycling waste completely carbon-free. An added bonus for Panda customers—the vehicle is also significantly quieter while operating in residential areas.
With a strong focus on how that waste is processed and a ‘zero disposal’ mission, Panda aims to help householders be greener by committing to converting up to 100 per cent of black bin waste into energy.
As part of its recycling and recovery services, the business engages in Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) processing. SRF is a system for creating fuel by shredding and dehydrating solid waste. It’s a bespoke fuel used as a coal replacement as part of the efforts of the cement industry to reduce their carbon footprint. The SRF system creates alternative fuel sources for cement kilns, and each year produces
enough fuel to eliminate the need for 100,000 tonnes of coal excavation.
Panda is also committed to the practice of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) processing. RDF is a type of fuel produced from various waste sources, such as industrial wastes, commercial wastes and municipal solid wastes. Every year, their RDF fuel - along with its bio-gas extraction - produces enough electricity to supply over 160,000 homes.
Panda’s mission is to shape a better future for all by making sustainable choices easy and affordable, and enabling its customers to leave a greener footprint.
manufacture composite wood blocks for use in wooden pallet manufacture and for use in other products.
Littleton Composting is the biggest in-vessel composting facility in the Republic of Ireland, processing 45,000 tonnes per annum. The facility accepts non-hazardous biodegradable wastes from which it produces Class 1 quality compost, a valuable soil improver.
Another element of Panda ‘ zero disposal’ mission is the process of sorting and recovering wood from other collected materials. What happens to the wood collected from skips is an excellent example of the so-called circular economy in action. Wood waste is gathered in piles in the various skip depots and sent in bulk loads to Panda’s facility in Fassaroe. Here the wood is sorted and screened under a strict quality control programme, which includes the removal of plastics, wire, steel and aluminium. Suitable wood is shredded to make a high-quality woodchip. The woodchip generated is then sent to a wood processor in Co Cork. The wood processors
The facility predominately accepts typical compost materials; from residential and commercial food waste, grass cuttings and smaller quantities of biodegradable residues, such as from food and drink manufacturing. Being centrally located, waste is delivered to the facility from Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Limerick as well as from local waste collectors operating in Tipperary.
This facility provides Panda with a secure and ethical outlet for the compost waste it collects which enables it to continue on its journey to sustainability while also contributing to the circular economy. Without facilities such as this one, government policy and EU legislation to reduce biodegradable wastes going to landfill could not be achieved.
PANDA’S MISSION IS TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL BY MAKING SUSTAINABLE CHOICES EASY AND AFFORDABLE, AND ENABLING ITS CUSTOMERS TO LEAVE A GREENER FOOTPRINT