On behalf of the Management and Staff of Dundalk Chamber of Commerce I would like to wish you and your family a happy and peaceful Christmas, and a prosperous new year.
Dundalk Chamber is here to support your business. The initiatives that the Chamber supported and promoted over the year have made a significant impact on businesses in Dundalk and the surrounding area. The Chamber launched the Shop Local Gift Voucher scheme two years ago to promote retail activity/ employment in Dundalk and its surrounding areas. The ‘scheme’ has been a resounding success, with over €2 million sold since we started 3 years ago and this includes sales over €650,000 worth of vouchers sold this Christmas alone.
We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the local business community, and the general public who supported the Shop Local Gift Voucher Initiative, and hope you will continue to support ‘Shop Local’ in 2019. We now have over 320 businesses redeeming these vouchers, which is helping to sustain local retail employment.
As a member of Dundalk Chamber of Commerce your business plays a vital role in ensuring that we can continue to deliver a range of services to help you and your business to progress.
The following events were successfully delivered to our membership, and businesses during the year, Business Expos, Seminars and Workshops, Tourism Conference, Embassy Visits, Louth Business Awards, Breakfast Briefings, St. Patrick’s Day Parade and many more too numerous to mention. These events gave businesses an opportunity to network, and participate in a variety of targeted training programmes.
The Chamber Gala Dinner and Business Awards event attracted an attendance of over 630, while over 200 people attended our Budget Breakfast in October. Forty five teams participated at our annual Golf Classic held in August.
The focus of the Chamber for 2019 will be to continue the positive momentum of ‘recovery,’ along with promoting the cause of local enterprise in every forum possible. The chamber’s active participation on numerous forums, and joint committees with local authorities, development agencies and neighbouring Chambers, ensures that the key business issues locally are being represented, and incorporated into the decision making processes within the region. We as a chamber will continue to influence all appropriate public and private bodies, and state agencies, in order to facilitate the creation of an environment, and infrastructure within Dundalk and its environs which is conducive to the further development of business, industry and commerce. The inclusion of the M1 corridor as a targeted development zone in the 2040 Development Plan was a significant win for Dundalk and Louth and was only achieved by the close cooperation of business and local authority with significant representation being made by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce.
Dundalk Chamber continues to grow its membership. We are the largest business network in Co Louth, and we have delivered in the facilitation of business net-working, through our event planning, and are providing a platform to enable business develop and prosper within the region. Dundalk Chamber aims to be the prime representative forum for businesses in Dundalk and County Louth. We are committed to stimulating investment, sustaining economic growth, enhancing business opportunities, and representing the interests of, and for our members.
I look forward to meeting you, or your staff at some of our planned events during 2019.
Kind Regards,
Pat McCormick, President
Note: Dundalk Chamber will close Friday the 21st December at 5pm and will re open on Wednesday the 2nd January 2019 at 9am.
