Winners of the Louth Business Awards 2019

A record crowd once again attended the Louth Business Awards organized by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce in the Carrickdale Hotel on Saturday the 19th October. The annual event is now a high light in the social calendar in Dundalk with over 670 guests in attendance.

A sell-out crowd compromising of business leaders, local politicians and dignitaries suggested this really was the place to be. Tickets are always at a premium for this occasion and this was the largest number of bookings ever for this fantastic networking event.

Local Soprano Sarah McCourt entertained guests during the reception. Mizu Health & Beauty sponsored Best Dressed Lady while Tony McDonnell Menswear sponsored the Best Dressed Gent. It really was a glamorous occasion with beautiful dresses and accessories. The staff of the Carrickdale Hotel pulled out all the stops to make it a night to be remembered. Local company Wow Weddings supplied a photo booth on the night and patrons had a fantastic time getting fun photos with plenty of props.

MC for the night was Michael Duffy who provided the rapport with the audience and the finalists. The band on the night was Sugartown Rd. and they got all the audience up from the very first number and made sure the crowd were entertained until the early hours with a brilliant selection of songs. The dance floor was packed to capacity the whole night and local businesses donated fantastic spot prizes also which really added to the occasion.

The winners in the various categories for the Louth Business Awards 2019 were as follows:

• Best Shop Front Both Interior & Exterior sponsored by Net1.ie was won by Pinstripe Punk.
• Best Customer Service Independent Retailer sponsored by The Argus was won by KT Travel.
• Best Customer Service Multiple Retailer sponsored by The Carrickdale Hotel was won by Colourtrend Paints.
• Best Café / Fast Food Outlet sponsored by AV Direct was won by Rocksalt Café.
• Best Dining Experience sponsored by Dundalk Stadium was won by Ghan House.
• Best Bar sponsored by Diageo was won by The Lumpers.
• Tourism Award sponsored by Value Centre Cash & Carry was won by Carlingford Oyster Festival.
• Best Hair & Beauty sponsored by L’Oréal was won by Image Beauty Salon.
• Community Award sponsored by Dundalk Credit Union was won by Holy Family Parish Community Creche.
• Start-up Business of the year sponsored by AIB Bank was won by it Tape Ltd.
• Best Emerging Business sponsored by Local Enterprise Office Louth was won by Cliffrun Media Ltd.
• Best SME of the year sponsored by Vhi Healthcare was won by Recruitment Plus.
• Best Training Initiative sponsored by LMETB was won by National Pen Promotional Products.
• Best Family Business sponsored by Prometric was won by Car L Parts Ltd.
• Professional Services Award sponsored by Data Protection Training & Auditing Services was won by ECC Design & Engineering Ltd.
• Best Indigenous Manufacturing Company of the year sponsored by Bank of Ireland was won by Suretank.
• Employee of the year sponsored by Recruit Island was won by Joe Donnelly of National Tile.
• Best Exporter of the year sponsored by Enterprise Ireland was won by Multihog.
• Best Digital Marketing /Social Media Campaign sponsored by Oriel Hub was won by Dundalk Football Club.
• Best Place to work sponsored by Recruitment Plus was won by Prometric.
• Entrepreneur of the year sponsored by the Regional Development Centre at DkIT was won by Nova Leah.

In addition, Best Dressed Lady sponsored by Mizu Health and Beauty was won by Emma Fern. Best Dressed Gent sponsored by Tony McDonnell Menswear was won by Michael Bellew.

Winner of the Lifetime Award for Contribution to Louth was won by Jim O’ Callaghan of TSM Controls. He founded the company 42 years ago, building it to a global organisation with three sales divisions across Europe, USA, and Asia exporting to 76 Countries and is a highly successful family owned business to-day.

He was president of Dundalk Chamber of Commerce from 1987-1989 at a time of great difficulty for the region, with unemployment in Dundalk at more than 4500 persons, in part due to the ongoing Troubles in the North. As Chamber President Jim also drove a cross border agenda and re-established contact between Belfast, Newry, Dundalk and Dublin Chambers of Commerce.

Through his Presidency tenue the Dundalk Enterprise Development Company was formed which brought together leaders of local Businesses and organisations where they successfully turned things around underpinning todays Dundalk success story. Dundalk’s first enterprise centre was built encompassing marketing promotional literature in multiple languages. An advance factory facility by Dundalk Enterprise Development Company members quickly resulted in new industry being setup, to follow this visionary mindset. He was the chairman during that period and remains a Director to-day.

He was awarded the “Engineer of the year Award” by Industrial Nucleonics in 1976 for excellence and professionalism in his work plus the “Dundalk Institute of Technology, 25-year Technical Achievement Award”.

He made a major contribution to DKIT by participating as their nominee on the Engineering Board of the NCEA (National Council of Educational Awards). He personally chaired the engineering evaluation assessment Board to sign off on the NIHE Limerick application to proceed to University status and also the NIHE Glasnevin application to become DCU.

He is a founder member of North Louth Hospice, founded in 1992, where he has devoted many years support plus insight acumen and is current Chairman of the Hospice Board of Trustees.

Pat McCormick President Dundalk Chamber “was delighted with the attendance, there are not many occasions where you can get so many members of the business community under the one roof and these awards provide that. All these companies here tonight are winners in their own field and this is a great opportunity to recognize them”.

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Attachments

• Louth Business Awards 2019 (pdf/54 KB)