Market Watch Industry Bulletin – Aerospace & Aviation
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The export economy is widely seen as vital to the success of the Irish economy – and even more so now we are looking into a period of recovery after the twin challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. There’s no better time to look at the possibilities afforded by exporting, and the opportunities that are available for ambitious Irish companies.
Plus, there are more markets that ever before that are actively welcoming innovative and ambitious Irish export partners. The UK market continues to be an important market, while our ongoing commitment to the EU has made trading within the Eurozone easy and accessible. What’s more, Brexit has created more opportunities for Irish companies to increase business within the Eurozone.
But while it’s clear that now is the time to develop an export strategy, getting started is the most difficult step – and that’s where Enterprise Ireland’s Export Compass series of webinars can help.
“As micro, small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the Irish economy, it’s a key focus for us and other agencies such as the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) to support these types of businesses when thinking about exporting and during their export journey. The Export Compass webinars are a first step for any company even considering exporting.”
“The last 18 months have been extremely challenging for SMEs and micro businesses. The pandemic has resulted in the digital economy completely opening up, and there’s been a dramatic shift in how people buy goods. But this has also created opportunities for businesses that weren’t there before, whether in terms of mindset or in in terms of the market itself. In short, Export Compass is a chance for companies to really explore the possibility of developing an export strategy, and what are the right next steps for them.”
The series of five webinars cover every aspect of developing an export plan, including research into different markets and opportunities, culture and doing business in other countries, sales and marketing techniques to win export customers in a digital world and financing your export plan through funding and pricing. The final session aims to bring all the information together, with a chance for participants to interact with a panel of experts.
Export Compass is open to any company considering exporting, or perhaps in the very early stages of developing an export plan, as Keelin explains: “The Export Compass webinars aim to show companies the benefits of exporting, as well as where companies can get support in overcoming any potential barriers or challenges, for instance, language or business culture. The purpose of the series is to explain the key facts when it comes to exporting and how to get into the mindset of developing an export plan.
“Participants will hear from other companies that have started their export journey, or perhaps are even a little further along.”
The series features interviews with companies who have successfully exported to a variety of different countries, giving participants a valuable opportunity to learn from other Irish businesses and network with those in similar situations – something that has been hugely missed over the last 18 months.
A pivotal part of the series is the introduction to the many available supports for Irish companies considering an export strategy. Enterprise Ireland has over 40 international locations, which facilitate access to more than 60 countries worldwide; each of the international offices are there to help Irish companies overcome any obstacles to trading in each country, from facilitating introductions and meetings with potential export partners to researching a chosen sector or overcoming language barriers. The Export Compass series features insights from many of the personnel available to help Irish companies implement an export strategy in their chosen country.
“We also bring in some of the Enterprise Ireland staff from the offices around the world so participants can hear first-hand how they can support client companies as they begin their export journey,” says Keelin. “We want participants to leave the series of webinars with a clear idea of what support is available to help them during their export journey and what next steps they need to take in order to develop their plan.”
National Women’s Enterprise Day 2020, organised by the Local Enterprise Offices, was like no other in that, because of Covid, for the first time in its 14-year history, it took place entirely online.
In all other ways, it was exactly the same – providing women with the inspiration, support and confidence to start and grow a business.
Sheelagh Daly, Entrepreneurship Manager at Enterprise Ireland, has been involved in this flagship event for women in business right from the start.
National Women’s Enterprise Day was an initiative set up by the Local Enterprise Offices in 2007, supported by Enterprise Ireland.
“Back then the landscape was quite different in that there was a dearth of female entrepreneurial role models. If you went back and looked at the newspapers, for example, there weren’t many women being profiled in a business or entrepreneurial setting,” says Daly.
“Research shows that role models are an important way to inspire women and give them the confidence to start a business. So we knew we needed to profile women who had done it successfully already. It was that whole concept of ‘to be it you have to see it’,” she says.
But a lack of role models wasn’t the only challenge.
“At the time there was also a real lack of access to business networks for women. While the Chambers of Commerce were, of course, important, they tended to be for more established businesses. More informal networks, such as rugby clubs and golf clubs, didn’t provide the same level of access to women.”
There was a need for “a mechanism to provide women with access to networks in order to inspire, demonstrate and build confidence in female entrepreneurship,” she says.
National Women’s Enterprise Day was just the mechanism.
“It was also a means to disseminate the huge range of supports available from lots of different government agencies, not just from Local Enterprise Offices and Enterprise Ireland, but from Intreo, Failte Ireland and the Credit Review Office,” she explains.
“The idea was to bring all these things under one roof, on one day, with one big bang that would put female entrepreneurship on the map.”
It did just that. “The first event was held in Mullingar and was fantastic, and overbooked, so we carried on.”
Indeed, the event grew so much that in recent years the Local Enterprise Offices have run regional versions too, to enable even more women to attend.
All followed the same proven format of enabling participants to listen to successful women at different stages of their business journey, to gain an understanding of the supports available to them, and to have an opportunity for networking.
“Then, in 2020, we had Covid,” she says.
Having supported so many businesses to ‘pivot’ to online to cope with the pandemic, the network of Local Enterprise Offices were quick to do the same with National Women’s Enterprise Day. It took place on Wednesday 14th October, entirely remotely, and was a huge success.
“We saw an enormous attendance of 1641 people which was amazing and well reflected this year’s theme of ‘Stronger Together’,” says Daly.
Speakers included Olympian turned businesswoman Derval O’Rourke, who talked about the strength, discipline and resilience required to deliver peak performance in one sector before pivoting to another.
Sonia Deasy, founder of international beauty brand Mortar & Pestle, spoke about her journey taking a brand from “local to global”.
A series of ‘leading lights’ included successful female entrepreneurs across a range of sectors, from Clare Hughes of CF Pharma in Kilkenny to Mary Walsh of Ire-Wel Pallets in Wexford and Odilon Hunt of AVA Audio Visual in Sligo.
Sheelagh Daly hosted a panel discussion entitled “Exploring Overseas Markets”, featuring expert commentary from Anne Lanigan, Enterprise Ireland’s Regional Director Eurozone, and Marina Donohoe, Enterprise Ireland’s Director for UK and Northern Europe.
As well as exhorting female entrepreneurs to explore Eurozone markets, they pointed out that the UK will always be hugely important to Irish businesses too.
Marcella Rudden, Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Cavan explained the questions to address when starting your export journey.
“She spoke about how to choose a market to target and how the Local Enterprise Office should be your first port of call because it has the supports to help you, both financial and otherwise,” says Daly.
One of the main threads running through the day was not to be afraid of exporting, she says. “The message was that it isn’t something that should be seen as intimidating and that there is help available.”
That help is not just from Local Enterprise Offices but from all sorts of sources, including networks for women in business in countries such as France and Spain, delegates heard.
“Before you commit to a market do the research, make sure that it’s the right market for you and that you can compete in it, and don’t be afraid to ask for help,” says Daly.
Information is crucial. Both men and women have similar business ambitions but research indicates that women take a more cautious approach, including in areas such as borrowing for business. They typically “prefer more information before they take a risk”, says Daly.
“The ambition is very much there but the approach is different.”
National Women’s Enterprise Day 2020 took place in a year which also saw the launch of Enterprise Ireland 2020 Action Plan for Women in Business. This important six-year strategy to support female entrepreneurship was launched in February, just before Covid.
“The reason such emphasis is being put on women is because we are still looking at a much higher proportion of men in leadership and entrepreneurship,” explains Daly.
This needs addressing because, both as an economy and a society, we “need the skills and talents of all our population to be realised,” she says.
We also need those businesses that are started to be the best they can. “All the research demonstrates that the greater the diversity the stronger, more profitable and faster-growing the business,” says Daly.
“That leads to wider economic benefits, so it’s a real economic imperative that everybody, regardless of gender or other diversities, does not face barriers when it comes to starting or growing a business.”
“We have been very busy during the lockdown as retail demand has increased significantly,” says Simon Fitzgerald, Director of Fitzgeralds Family Bakery. “Unfortunately, while retail sales have increased because consumers are mostly eating at home, the food-to-go and food service suppliers have been very badly hit.”
Simon is part of the fourth generation to run his family bakery, Fitzgeralds Family Bakery, which was first opened on Blarney Street in Cork city in 1910 by his great-grandfather. It is now run by Simon, Suzanne and Garry FitzGerald, with a whole new generation of little tasters by their feet.
The bakery sells to retail businesses including SuperValu, Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Eurospar, Mace, Londis, and Costcutter in Ireland and also exports its products to Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Ocado in the UK. The range of baked goods includes wraps, Bake-at-Home French and Italian breads, pittas and naans, pizza bases, and their most popular product, bagels. Due to being a retail business, they benefited from the initial stage of panic buying and being an essential service.
“When the lockdown hit, our sales increased by more than 30%,” says Simon. “Now the panic buying has settled, and we are still seeing an increase of around 10 to 15% for the next few months potentially. As hotels and restaurants were forced to close, the manufacturers supplying those customers suffered badly. We were fortunate that our main service was retail and we had success in the UK market too, so that really helped us.
During the Covid-19 crisis, many businesses struggled, either through enforced closures or too much demand in a stressful environment.
Simon says, “Our aim was to produce enough product to meet the demand for our customers. And there was such a demand! We were also very fortunate that we had ordered a second bagel production line in October, which has been delivered and commissioned in recent weeks.”
Fitzgeralds Family Bakery was able to face this task with the help of Enterprise Ireland and their supports. They have gained support and grant aid over the years, including capital and employment grants to help the business grow.
“We have been able to go from having fewer than 50 employees to nearly 100. This is due in no small part to the support and guidance we have had from Enterprise Ireland. We have been incredibly well supported by them. They invest in businesses to help them provide employment and I think we have achieved those goals.”
Having such support is important for the future of the business and the industry at large as the pandemic has changed everything about the business landscape. It has vastly changed lifestyles, which in turn has changed working lives and even the way people eat.
“With the lockdown and social distancing, it has made people stop, re-think, and change their eating habits. Going forward, there will definitely be fewer people going out to eat. More people are working from home and that is likely to continue to some degree and children may well see some of their education being delivered by remote learning, so there is more demand to eat at home.
“We are a modern family craft bakery and we want to keep producing high-quality products. We will continue to develop our range of products and continue to be innovative and bring new exciting products to the market. We have nearly doubled our retail sales in the last two years, and I think that’s due to this commitment.”
I became interested in the graduate programme while I was studying for my Masters in Strategic Management at TU Dublin, where I specialised in innovation. Enterprise Ireland’s support for Irish companies was constantly referenced in my studies, so I knew it was somewhere that I would like to apply to.
The application process is quite lengthy and intense. It’s very important to dedicate time to completing your application. There are multiple stages so it’s vital to research what’s needed in each stage and understand what Enterprise Ireland is looking for. Once you’ve successfully completed the initial online assessment, you’re invited to an assessment day with other candidates – I remember being extremely nervous about this but as soon as I met the assessors, my nerves were put at ease. It’s a great opportunity to show your strengths and to get an insight into what Enterprise Ireland is about and what the work entails.
There are lots of opportunities in various departments, especially on the national programme, and you can indicate your preference before the final interview.
The role has given me a unique opportunity to work with a variety of companies from a wide range of sectors; from Day One, I was given lots of responsibility working directly with clients and supporting colleagues on various initiatives. Over the past 10 months, I’ve been project managing one of Enterprise Ireland’s biggest events, Med in Ireland, which is a biannual high-profile national event that covers the entire spectrum of the Irish medical technologies sector. My role involves driving and coordinating a team of colleagues from various departments, ensuring that planning is underway and that we’re achieving key project milestones. This project has enabled me to work closely with many of our overseas colleagues too.
Now that the retailers have had the opportunity to implement their projects, it’s extremely rewarding to see the results – by improving their online capability, they’re more competitive and resilient as a result. This is an example of how rewarding the work in Enterprise Ireland can be.
I’m now half way through the two-year programme and I’m starting to think about what happens next. I personally would like to stay with Enterprise Ireland as I feel there are plenty of opportunities to further my career. Also, by working so closely with companies, you gain a deep understanding of how they operate and you can take these learnings with you whether you stay with Enterprise Ireland or go elsewhere. It’s also been very inspiring to work with entrepreneurs.
Enterprise Ireland is also incredibly diverse so there are multiple ways to get involved and build your skillset. Plus the work is very rewarding as you’re playing an active role in supporting Irish enterprise. I would really recommend the programme to anyone interested in a career in business.
We are living in extraordinary times, but it’s not all bad news for Irish business. Over the next couple of years, those who can or who are keen to export can take advantage of a significant opportunity, fuelled by the NextGenerationEU funding package put in place by the European Commission. At €750 billion*, it’s the largest ever stimulus package in Europe and some is directly aimed at SMEs.
“The objective is twofold,” explains Marco Lopriore, at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA). “It is recovery, to help the European economy recover from the past year, but it is also resilience.
Within the overall project, the EU level of investment is supplemented by the agendas and priorities of each national government.
*The current value of the funding is €806.9 billion. It was €750 billion when agreed in 2018.
This Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) means a wave of funding unrolling across all 27 EU member states to support investment in public services and infrastructure, to make Europe greener, more digital and more resilient.
As Ireland seeks to build a deeper trade relationship with Europe, that funding represents an excellent opportunity for Irish companies to break into new markets or to deepen and scale their presence in existing markets.
Across everything from digital health care and green technology to smart cities and cybersecurity, there are hundreds of Eurozone recovery projects to complete across the EU over the next few years. All of them will be fully funded.
The overall fund is focused on six pillars, with the green transition and digital transformation being top of the list. The European Commission has specified that each country must assign at least 37% and 20% of their spending to those pillars, respectively.
The green transition covers everything from clean tech, renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable transport, improving water quality to creating greener cities and making farming more eco-friendly.
Digital projects to get funding span 5G, digitalisation of public service, cloud computing, smart cities, artificial intelligence, blockchain and more, including projects focused on reskilling and upskilling to improve digital literacy.
Areas in which many Irish firms specialise, such as cybersecurity and the digitalisation of health are a significant focus in many plans, says Lopriore, who wrote extensively on national areas of focus for NextGenerationEU funding in a recent paper.
When it comes to providing health and medical services online, France will invest €2 billion in the digitalisation of health, while Germany will invest €3.8 billion.
The funding offers new momentum to Irish exporters targeting Europe, a trend that was already soaring, says Lanigan.
For companies that want to export for the first time or to diversify their export markets, Enterprise Ireland can offer support and advice. This includes everything from market research and helping a company to get export-ready to tapping into a wide network of contacts and making the right introductions.
“The easiest model is where a client is looking for a customer and we can introduce them,” says Lanigan. “Exporting often involves a local partner and we introduce companies to the right people– the local influencers, the potential partners and those they could collaborate with, including other Irish companies.
The markets of interest to individual companies will depend on the nature of the products and services they offer. Those selling into the tourism and hospitality sector, for example, will find more extensive opportunities in Southern Europe, where governments are placing more emphasis on this sector.
Many countries mention renovating buildings to be more energy-efficient and installing more electric vehicle charging situations, but Germany is putting particular emphasis on hydrogen production and AI, for example.
Detailed country-by-country information in English on the plans and priorities of each Member State can be found here.
While deciding to expand export operations can seem daunting to some, Lanigan encourages Irish business owners and managers to examine the RRP options open to them. That includes going beyond the UK, even as a first export market.
“Diversifying our export markets has become even more important since Brexit,” she says. “Now, 29% of our clients’ exports go to the UK, but that is down from 45% a decade ago.
A marked improvement in marine links is helping, she adds, as more routes with more capacity mean it is much easier to trade directly with EU customers.
“Irish companies have a great reputation across Europe, with customers having a really positive view of them. And when you see the Irish products and services selling into Europe – they are top notch and born of incredible innovation – it’s evident why they are well regarded.”
Overview:
If two heads are better than one then it goes without saying that multiple research centres, universities and specialist companies working together can achieve more than one. That’s the philosophy that underpins the Horizon 2020 programme. The European Union’s research and innovation instrument has an €80 billion funding pot and is supporting consortia across Europe to transition great ideas from the laboratory to the market.
One of those great ideas is the MiniStor project, the brainchild of Dr Carlos Ochoa of the International Energy Research Centre, which is based at Tyndall National Institute in University College Cork in partnership with Cork City Council.
“In basic terms the MiniStor project is about storing heat from the sun to use later. The heat is captured via renewable energy sources such as solar panels and then stored in special salts, making it much more energy efficient than water-based systems,” explains Ochoa.
The project aims to significantly decrease energy consumption in residential buildings, reducing their overall environmental impact.
“When I read the Horizon 2020 call for technologies enabling energy-efficient systems and energy-efficient buildings, I made a preliminary sketch of my idea and then we considered what the scope of the project would be and started looking for scientific partners who could help us make the idea a reality,” says Ochoa.
“We needed particular expertise so we began contacting people via websites and LinkedIn to get them interested in the idea. We got help from Enterprise Ireland and the Tyndall European Office to find and contact some key partners.
“In the end we found 17 other institutions across eight countries who were interested in working with us. Then we were ready to respond to the competitive call.”
The process of applying for Horizon 2020 support is sometimes perceived as being complex and onerous but, as Dr Ochoa explains, there is plenty of help available.
“It’s true that preparing the application is very time intensive but there are support services available. Nationally, Enterprise Ireland leads the Horizon 2020 support network and their support was excellent in terms of reviewing the main idea to determine if it had some potential; that’s like a reality check. They were also able to give advice on what’s required in the application documentation,” says Ochoa. “I also had a lot of support from within the Tyndall National Institute.”
The application was a success and the project received funding of over €7.5 million, some 87% of its total budget.
“Without Horizon 2020 support this project could not have gone ahead. We may have been able to do something at a much smaller scale but we wouldn’t have had access to the same amount of expertise,” says Ochoa.
Ochoa has been a participant in Horizon 2020 projects before but this is his first time as co-ordinator.
Now six months into the project the team are closing in on achieving their first milestone – the preliminary design for the MiniStor system.
“It’s not a trivial achievement because all these components have not been combined before.”
Unfortunately the advent of the Covid-19 crisis and ensuing lockdown has impacted on the project. “We have slight delays because we have some demonstration sites, which are actual homes in different countries around Europe. The restrictions are preventing us from entering the houses to do monitoring. So that’s pushing back the timeline for a few months,” says Ochoa.
Dr Ochoa is keen to encourage other researchers to apply to Horizon 2020 or its successor Horizon Europe (2021–2027), an ambitious funding programme that will be larger than Horizon 2020 and will begin to roll out next year.
“It’s a good way to progress not only as a researcher but also personally in terms of management skills, which are required if you are aiming for more senior positions. I’ve found the whole experience to be very enriching. Of course it takes a lot of time and effort but it pays off,” says Ochoa.
“My experience of interacting with Enterprise Ireland has been very positive. If you have a question about Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe they know very well what’s going on and can provide advice, and they are also very ready to give us talks explaining the scope and opportunities presented by EU programmes.”