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TWO Clare business owners are encouraging returned emigrants who are setting up a business, or those living abroad thinking of returning home with an idea they want to get off the ground, to get involved in a government backed programme. Back for Business is a development programme, funded by the Government’s Emigrant Support Programme, that was established to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants returning to live in Ireland. It is aimed at those who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned in the last three years or those planning to return in the near future. It was launched last month by Colm Brophy TD Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora and now the programme is looking for applications for the 2023 programme from those living or hoping to return to County Clare. There is no charge for those selected to participate and the closing date for applications is Thursday, January 12. Former participants …

ENNIS employer Ecolect Technical Services Limited has won a prestigious award at the 2022 Generation Apprenticeship Employer of the Year Awards, taking home a ‘pioneering micro-employer’ award at the ceremony. Seven businesses from around the country have been crowned Generation Apprenticeship Employers of the Year by Simon Harris TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in an awards ceremony which took place on Thursday, December 8th, 2022 in the Morrison Hotel, Dublin. Commenting on their award win, the Ecolect Technical Services Ltd Team, based on the Tulla Road, said, “Absolutely thrilled to be nominated for the award. Our apprentices are the future of our company and are key to its further growth and expansion” Founded in 2001, Ecolect Technical Services Limited are a leading provider of innovative mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions. It provides services to customers across sectors including Data Centres, Life Sciences, Industrial, Commercial, Substations and Renewables and operate across Ireland, the UK …

A KILLALOE company has scored on the double by winning a Lean Leadership Award that brought extra cash of up to €150,000 into the company over an 18-month period. Thinking Toys was recently presented with an Award of Achievement in recognition of lean leadership at the 2022 Lean Business Ireland Awards. Implementing transformation change with stock management through a new Lean Management Programme to deal with an overstocking issue helped the company reduce their suppliers to 130 and product lines to 4,000, which cut the value of stock it held by 35%. Thinking Toys had grown from employing two people with ten suppliers and 200 products in 2004 to nine employees with 160 suppliers in 2020 across the world and 5,500 product lines. The family business was set up by Michael and Áine Conacur, inspired by their eldest child Ailis, who has Sturge Weber Syndrome and who had major brain surgery when she was two. The frustration and difficulties the …

TÁNAISTE Leo Varadkar was in Shannon last week for the official opening of the Future Mobility Campus Ireland in the Free Zone. It’s the country’s first full-scale development centre and test-bed for mobility technologies. In essence the facility exists to work on the development of driverless cars, air taxis and drones, as well as the air traffic technology to manage them. Addressing the attendance on the day Mr Varadkar spoke about the development of Ardnacrusha, and how that shows a history of innovation and vision in Clare, while he also spoke about the county’s future. “I think that first Government showed really enormous vision in making that decision, making that bet for Ireland that turned out to be the right one. “That was followed up by other innovations in this region, Shannon Airport, Duty Free and of course the Shannon Free Zone where we are now. This region has always been at the forefront of industrial innovation and that should …

AN estimated €5m concession contract to operate four restaurant, cafe and bar outlets is being put up for grabs at Shannon Airport. The airport is in recovery mode following the lifting of Covid-19 air travel restrictions and the new tender is projecting passenger numbers to increase more than three fold this year to 1.33m. According to the tender, the airport is projecting to return to 77pc of 2019 pre-Covid passenger numbers and the 1.33m passenger estimate follows 379,935 passengers at Shannon during the pandemic-hit 2021. The tender states: “SAA’s business strategy, which initially focused on stabilization during Covid, is now firmly in  recovery and rebuilding. SAA is committed to maximising all opportunities to build back stronger.” The new contract is due to commence in November of this year and continue for five years with a further option of a two-year extension. The Shannon Group is inviting tenders to operate a landside restaurant and bar currently trading as JJ Ruddles; an …

Three Ireland is to expand operations at its Limerick customer experience centre, with the creation of 175 new jobs over the next four years as the Irish office begins to export services to Three UK business customers for the first time. The 175 new jobs will include both full time and part time positions and openings across a range of job titles and experience levels in the B2B sector. The employment opportunities will range from Customer Care, Team Leaders, Operations and Management. The Limerick customer experience centre has a strong history in Castletroy, originally established over 20 years ago and currently employing close to 400 people. Given the skills, expertise and talent in the Limerick centre, it is well placed to advise international clients across a broad range of connectivity services including IoT, ICT products and cost management. The expansion to support business customers in the UK market is the realisation of a key strategic objective for the team in …

Shannon Chamber was named as the winner of the ‘Most Successful Policy Campaign’ category in Chambers Ireland’s Awards 2022. The awards, hosted by Chambers Ireland, recognise the work of chambers of commerce throughout the country in supporting local, regional, and national business. The announcement was made at the awards ceremony in Dublin. Shannon Chamber’s entry into this category was the preparation of the business case for a multi-annual, fully funded regional air access recovery and growth action plan, which was presented to Government. The business case was prepared by Shannon Chamber in collaboration with the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), and supported by Ennis, Limerick, and Galway Chambers. The objective of this policy campaign was to demonstrate that, while the funding allocated by Government to support Irish airports up to 2021 was welcome, a reform of funding strategy would be needed in the future. The collective business and hospitality representative grouping wanted the Government to consider providing three forms of sustained …

A TEAM from Ennistymon has been named among the finalists for this year’s national Student Enterprise Programme. BEA Scrubs from Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon, the brainchild of Áine Hennigan, Eimear Lernihan and Bríd Áine Rouine, will represent Clare in the junior category final on May 18. The Local Enterprise Office initiative has seen over 300,000 Irish students take part over the course of its 20-year history. The announcement of the finalists took place at The Helix in Dublin, the venue for this year’s finals, with this year’s Ambassador, All-Ireland winner and All-Star, Limerick’s Sean Finn. Over 24,000 students took part in the Student Enterprise Programme this year, which began in September 2021 and returns to a physical National Finals event for the first time since 2019. From over 24,000 student enterprises, the top five businesses in each of the three categories, Senior, Intermediate and Junior have been selected to go forward to the final at the Helix on May 18 where …