Burnside Autocyl’s Relationship with Enterprise Ireland Ever-evolving

With supports ranging from grant assistance to identifying potential customers and training, Enterprise Ireland has travelled with Burnside Autocyl on its German journey.

Enterprise Ireland has been instrumental in Burnside Autocyl’s success in Germany since 1990 – when it was known as Córas Tráchtala – according to the Co Carlow-based engineering company’s sales director Caroline Kelly.

“Grant assistance from Enterprise Ireland was important in the early days but the support ran much deeper than that,” she says. “Market advisers walked the beat with us, helped to get us appointments with the right people and made introductions for us. When our German wasn’t that good, they interpreted buyers’ needs for us and stayed involved after we had secured business.”

One of the most important pieces of advice Enterprise Ireland gave Burnside Autocyl about Germany was not to go into the market unless a product or service was robust and tried and tested.

“We learned not to bring anything to the market that wasn’t well proven or that we weren’t fully satisfied with,” says Kelly. “It was also crucial to be clear about who our customers should be before approaching any prospects.”

Beyond that, facilitating Burnside Autocyl to attend trade fairs has been hugely helpful, Kelly adds, as well as how Enterprise Ireland encouraged the management team to embrace training to improve their skills and knowhow.

“Nobody ever knows enough about the industry they’re in and business is evolving and changing all the time,” she says.

“Our relationship with Enterprise Ireland today is less about grant support and more about marketing and training support.”

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