ruth_larkin_entrepreneurs_12-04-2017

Nominee Ruth Larkin Managing Director/Owner Lark Bridal Ltd Category Entrepreneurs Nominator Ruth Larkin Managing Director/Owner Lark Bridal Ltd

Entrepreneurs Nominator Information Salutation Mrs First Name Ruth Last Name Larkin Title Managing Director/Owner Company/Organisation Lark Bridal Ltd Company/Organisation Address Unit D, Monksland Business Park Country Ireland County / Postcode Westmeath Town Athlone EIRcode N37X8N1 Telephone +353 90 6494698 X Email ruth@larkbridal.com How did you hear about the Top 100 Awards? ●

Broadcast Media

Nominator’s Executive Assistant Information Executive Assistant First Name Tara Executive Assistant Last Name Evans

RUTH LARKIN

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Executive Assistant E-mail tara@larkbridal.com Executive Assistant Telephone +353 90 6494698 X

Nominee Information I am nominating myself â—?

I am nominating myself

Salutation Mrs First Name Ruth Last Name Larkin Title Managing Director/Owner Company/Organisation Lark Bridal Ltd Company/Organisation Address Unit D, Monksland Business Park Country Ireland County / Postcode Westmeath Town Athlone EIRcode N37X8N1 Telephone +353 90 6494698 X Email ruth@larkbridal.com Company/Organisation Website www.larkbridal.com How many direct reports does the Nominee have?

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8 How many indirect reports does the Nominee have?

8 To whom does the Nominee report? (Name, Title, Company) NA - 100% Owner of company Please provide a brief overview of the Nominee’s organisation (maximum 2500 characters, approximately 350 words) Lark Bridal was established in 2015 to independently and exclusively represent and distribute international bridal brands in Europe. Lark Bridal has grown from strength to strength, now exclusively representing USA brand Maggie Sottero Designs and the respective 3 collections Maggie Sottero, Sottero & Midgley and Rebecca Ingram in NL, DE, BE, PL, ES, PT, CH, AT, IT, FR and the entire MENA territory. In year 1 from taking over representation of the brand, Lark Bridal stabilized what had previously been a 4 year downward trajectory in sales and drove a 15% increase in sales, in 2016 the company drove a 22% increase i sales, and by q4 2017, the company is on track to finish the year at 148% of 2016 sales.

Founded, backed and owned by Ruth Larkin, the company in year 1 started as a single employee company in a small 650sq ft. facility. To meet the growing demand of the market place the company now resides in a 3700sq ft facility with first refusal on an additional 6200sq ft adjoining facility, and growing team numbers as deemed necessary to ensure exceptional international customer service is maintained in line with growth.

Lark Bridal is fully responsible for the introduction, development, management and growth of these collections in the international market . The company has full control relating to the appointment, termination and management of all retailers, and is fully responsible for the marketing, media and international trade shows representing these collections within the European/MENA territory.

As it stands on 29/11/2017, the company has in total 363 accounts Additionally the company is currently in discussions to further expand the distribution territory to further grow the market for the represented brands.

Industry Type (Please select all relevant) ●

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Consumer Goods Retail Other

Nominee’s Executive Assistant Information Executive Assistant First Name Tara Executive Assistant Last Name Evans Executive Assistant E-mail tara@larkbridal.com RUTH LARKIN

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Executive Assistant Telephone +353 90 6494698 X

Nominee’s Company/Organisation Head Office Information Please check this box if the information below is the same as previously indicated ●

Please check this box if the information below is the same as previously indicated

Company/Organisation Lark Bridal Ltd Address Unit D, Monksland Business Park Country Ireland County / Postcode Westmeath Town Athlone EIRcode N37X8N1

Previous Nomination Information Has the Nominee previously won an Award?

No

Category Questions Business Performance The company was established in 2013, and commenced trade as the international independent distributor of Maggie Sottero Designs collections, Maggie Sottero, Sottero&Midgley and Rebecca Ingram in 2015. Starting with a territory encompassing Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, Lark Bridal has shown year on year dramatic growth in both new territory acquisition across Europe and the Middle East, and in unit sales. Initially taking over a market with a track record of an annual recurring downward trajectory in sales, Lark Bridal not only stabilized the market but also drove growth in excess of 15%. In 2016, the company expanded it's territory to take over France and Poland and also drove further substantial growth from 1349 units to 1794 units. In 2017, the company has to date grown to now also cover Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and the entire MENA region, offering immense new business development opportunities. The team has grown in line to support this and as of 29.11.2017 in Q4 of 2017, the company is on track to complete the year at 148% of 2016, with a turnover in excess of €1.3M. The edition of the new territories coming on board throughout 2017, will only effect a commercial impact throughout 2018, resulting in seemingly aggressive, but realistic targets based on RUTH LARKIN

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commitments to date, of 4400 units in 2018 and a projected turnover of â‚Ź2.31M. Impact on Irish Thinking and Culture Being an Irish company and team in an International industry is one of the powerful, influential and beneficial advantages. The culture of building strong business and personal relationships with customers, allows a better base from which to develop continued mutually beneficial progress, along with building trust, respect and understanding. By positioning the company as the most trusted, reliable and engage-able supplier helps to ensure that customers choose Lark Bridal first above others. Ruth Larkin invests immense time into developing strong long term relationships with each individual customer, building of the ethos of fairness, trust, compassion and honesty that is core to Irish thinking and culture. Be driving strong relationships with customers, Lark Bridal has been able to significantly drive business. Leading by example to the team, Ruth Larkin ensures that this Irish culture of hard work, dedication and putting the customer first is instilled in each team member and felt be each customer across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Vision and Leadership Ruth Larkin started Lark Bridal Ltd. in 2013 after recognizing and validating a niche in the European market for high end US influenced bridal fashion. Larkin was single handedly responsible for introducing multiple US collections to Europe and Lebanon. In late 2014 Larkin was approached by Maggie Sottero Designs directly with a proposal to take over the western mainland european territory with exclusive distribution rights. While there had been a year on year downward trajectory on Maggie Sottero Designs sales in the territory, on investigation, Larkin felt that this was driven by thinking, culture and approach that was being taken in the territory as opposed to being based on the product.

Larkin has built the business on proactively engaging with the customers, building sustainable strong relationships, and listening to all critques constructively in order to drive design changes for futrue collections to maximise sales. As a result of this Lark Bridal, has stabalised and grown each market year on year and also taken over additional territories to now include all of mainland europe, the Middle East and North Africa, making Lark Bridal the largest independent distributor of Maggie Sottero Designs globally in under 3 years.

Larkin believes in building a team fro the ground up, and rewarding team members with progression opportunities when possible, it has always been her approach to advance team members internally and recruit for junior positions externally. Larkin always believes in setting the pace and leading by example to try to ensure that the culture every customer feels and experiences is consistent across the entire team. Larkin invests time, training and compassion into all team members in attempt to not only get the est out of each person, but to challenge them to continually develop into stronger, better more experienced team members.

Larkin (nee McAdam) was the co-founder and sales and marketing director of indigenous manufacturing company Multihog Ltd. which designs and manufactures diesel powered, hydrostatically driven multipurpose implement carrier municipal tractors. While a completely different industry, Larkin was similarly responsible for finding, appointing and managing a network of international dealers. Larkin sold out of the company in 2012, and the company is currently represented all across Europe, North America, Canada and Russia with continued expansion of the dealer network and models of machines on offer.

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Community Service Although Lark Bridal is an international distribution company covering Mainland Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and not dealing directly with retailers in Ireland, Ruth Larkin has been committed to basing an headquartering the business in Ireland and to generating long term, sustainable employment in the local area. 100% of the Lark Bridal team is made up of local talent, and importantly, the team is presented by 75% female employees across international account management, distribution, finance and sales engagement. Larkin is committed to driving female progression and development in Lark Bridal, and pushing her team to better personal and professional progression. While Larkin believes that glass ceilings are only imposed by the individuals themselves, Larkin is determined to show and give opportunities to Irish women, shattering preconceptions about attainable goals and demonstrating that their are no limits or ceilings in what an individual can achieve.

Financial Data Company/Organisation Lark Bridal Ltd Percentage of company owned by the Nominee 100

2016 Annual Sales 993.066,00 € Income After Taxes 277.461,00 € EBITDA^ 277.461,00 € Total Assets 100.473,00 € Total Equity 10.448,00 €

2015 Annual Sales 677.974,00 € Income After Taxes 187.356,00 € EBITDA^ 187.356,00 € Total Assets 123.236,00 € RUTH LARKIN

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Total Equity 11.379,00 €

2014 Annual Sales 0,00 € Income After Taxes 0,00 € EBITDA^ 0,00 € Total Assets 0,00 € Total Equity 0,00 €

Document Upload Internal Letter of Reference (one page maximum, Word Document or PDF) ●

LOR.pdf

Senior Leadership Organisational Chart ●

Organisational-Chart.pdf

Ownership Position Letter (one page maximum, Word Document or PDF) ●

Ownership.pdf

Nominee's Digital Headshot (High-resolution, colour image, minimum 500kb, JPEG or TIFF) ●

20171113_204429.jpg

Nominee's Biography (one page maximum, Word Document) ●

Ruth-Larkin_ShortBio.doc

Confirmation of Truth of Information and Release I Agree ●

I Agree

Confirmation Number 00333 RUTH LARKIN

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RUTH LARKIN

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