Focus on Exports Helped Kirby Triple Turnover

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“We’ve achieved growth in three ways, through strengthening our capabilities, going deeper into our chosen sectors, and through geographic expansion.”

Jimmy Kirby, MD Kirby Group Engineering

Key Takeouts:

  • Kirby provides full mechanical and electrical engineering contracting services, as well as specialist voltage design and construction services to clients.
  • Has achieved growth in three ways, through strengthening capabilities, going deeper into chosen sectors and through geographic expansion.
  • Enterprise Ireland has supported Kirby to develop its international operations.

Case Study: Kirby

Developing export markets has helped Kirby treble its business in just seven years.

Founded in 1964, Kirby provides full mechanical and electrical engineering contracting services, as well as specialist high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) design and construction services, to clients across several key sectors. These include data centre, life sciences, industrial manufacturing, commercial, petrochemical, and substations and renewables.

With the support of Enterprise Ireland, Kirby operates in a number of markets including the UK and Northern Europe.

Growing international operations

“In 2008, we began our first overseas work in the UK, initially focusing on the pharmaceutical, industrial manufacturing and power sectors,” says Jimmy Kirby. “Originally, we were invited in by one of our large multinational power sector customers to deliver projects for them; then we successfully expanded into the other sectors.”

Kirby has continued to develop and grow its international operations.

“Over the past seven years, we have almost tripled our turnover, from €58 million in 2010 to €167 million for 2017. To meet our growth targets, we increased employee numbers significantly. We currently directly employ over 700 people.”

Kirby has strengthened its management team too. “Earlier this year we announced a number of key appointments at senior level to support growth and success,” Jimmy Kirby says.

The company has recently announced further expansion in its international operations to include the new geographical area of the Nordics. “Expansion into the Nordics market is proving to be a successful development for us, having secured a data centre project and with more in the pipeline. We have the capability to execute projects in Ireland, UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium, and are currently developing the capability to execute projects in Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg.”

Preparing for further growth

The business is poised for significant further growth. “Kirby has excellent future prospects due to the strength of our management team, our staff and associated capabilities, our strategy formulation and implementation capability, and our customer value proposition.”

The company has developed an in-house, integrated project execution process called the Kirby Way. “At the core of the Kirby Way is efficient and successful project delivery” explains Jimmy Kirby, Kirby Group Managing Director.

“It involves understanding our clients’ needs, collaboration, building high-performance teams and supporting our clients through every stage of the project,” 

Strengthening its systems and processes is helping too. “Lean practices, such as standardisation, have become important components of our project delivery, bringing significant value to us and our customers,” says Kirby.

Staff members have taken ownership of continuous improvement. “We operate an Innovation Suggestion Scheme with participation encouraged among all of our workforce. This approach allows us to encourage a culture of innovation and continuously generate innovative and lean ideas from our site and office employees. The suggestions are focused around introducing efficiencies into the business through cycle-time reduction.”

Recent project wins include Gemini Data Centre and Substation in Dublin and Kilgallioch Windfarm Substation in the UK. Kirby is currently working on a confidential data centre site in Sweden, a biopharma facility in Meath, and Wembley Park Energy Centre in the UK, among many others.

Three ways to achieve growth

“We have achieved growth in three ways, through strengthening our capabilities, going deeper into our chosen sectors, and through geographic expansion,” Kirby says. “To ensure that there is a continuous pipeline of projects, it is important to track the investment levels in our selected geographies and sectors.”

Working with Enterprise Ireland is helping. “Enterprise Ireland has supported Kirby to develop its international operations over the years in a number of ways. It has done so by providing market research support, local market information and advice on new markets, providing access to its global network of contacts, and hosting networking events and seminars – such as a construction seminar held in Stockholm recently.”

Jimmy Kirby personally participated on Enterprise Ireland’s International Selling Programme in 2010, and went on to do a Masters Degree in DIT afterwards. The company also availed of a Market Access Grant, “which was a valuable support in our internationalisation efforts,” says Kirby.

Learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Competitiveness supports here.

Our friends in the north offer opportunities for Irish companies

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Marina Donohoe, Director UK & Northern Europe at Enterprise Ireland, describes how the UK’s Northern Powerhouse project is creating opportunities for Irish companies.

The north of England is engaged in a historic transformation from an industrial past to a bright future that connects vibrant cities and globally competitive commercial activities. The scale of those activities should not be underestimated.

Growing faster than anywhere else in the UK, if the north of England was a country, it would be the 10th largest economy in Europe, exporting €56.4 billion worth of goods each year and accounting for nearly 20% of the UK’s overall gross value add (GVA).

 

The UK potential

The opportunities set out in Enterprise Ireland’s recent Northern Powerhouse report play to the strengths of Irish companies, particularly in the construction, life sciences, and digital sectors.

Northern Powerhouse is a government initiative that aims to rebalance the UK’s economy, by maximising the combined potential of the north of England’s cities and regions, including Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Tees Valley, an area of approximately 14,400 square miles with a population of 14.9 million people. The goal is to create a collection of modern cities sufficiently close to each other that ‘combined they can take on the world’.

The initiative, first launched in 2016, is delivering substantial public investment, with a focus on improving transport infrastructure between cities in the north of England and supporting economic activities around emerging capabilities. As a result, Northern Powerhouse is creating a wide range of business opportunities suited to the strengths of Irish exporters.

 

Trading Partnerships

Theresa Grant, CEO of Trafford Council, comments, “Irish companies are long-standing trading partners to the north of England, contributing to its robust economy and reaffirming Ireland’s successful relationship to this part of the UK. With rail links like HS2 and HS3 and improved worldwide air connectivity opening up, enabling the cities in the Northern Powerhouse to grow and prosper, we anticipate the Anglo/Irish partnership will grow even stronger, as major opportunities to continue to work together and collaborate present themselves.”

The most significant opportunities are likely to arise from new economic activities and clusters, which are largely based on science and innovation. With the European Commission’s 2017 Innovation Scorecard ranking Irish SMEs first for innovation, Irish companies have a leading position internationally.

 

Significant growth for Irish companies

Brian Crowley, CEO of TTM Healthcare, says, “Since 2012, the TTM Group has been working with NHS trusts, private hospitals and charitable organisations across the north of England, supporting more than twenty clients and employing 110 permanent and temporary staff. We see this region as of one of the fastest in growth terms for TTM, as we work with amazingly innovative and progressive healthcare organisations. Through the support of Enterprise Ireland and Northern Powerhouse, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises can provide modern, innovative and high-quality services across several industries which enhance the growth of the economy in the north of England.”

Ardmac, a construction specialist that works with leading companies across the pharma and technology sectors, has an office in Manchester and a portfolio of clients across the north of England. Ronan Quinn, CEO of Ardmac, comments, “Our business has seen considerable growth in the region in recent years. A significant amount of that business has come from building a shared vision of what our clients want to achieve. The ease of travel between the north of England and our offices mean that we can be face to face with a client within an hour – a key benefit for those working across multiple territories.”

Notwithstanding the threat of Brexit, the UK’s economy is in growth mode and remains Ireland’s most significant export market. Enterprise Ireland is focused on supporting Irish companies to consolidate and grow exports to the UK market, while also supporting them to diversify their export markets across the globe.

Companies interested in exploring opportunities should begin by downloading the Northern Powerhouse report.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Irish construction

Digital ambition driving Irish construction to international scale

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John Hunt, senior market advisor for the construction sector at Enterprise Ireland, describes how Irish construction companies are gaining competitive advantage by investing in digitisation.

For construction companies in Ireland, investment in digitisation was once hampered by uncertainty about cost and the likelihood of generating an immediate return on investment (ROI). Disruption from digital is, however, high on the international agenda. Globally, the sector is undergoing a digital transition, particularly evident with the increasing adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Today, ROI is often understood by the sector to mean the potential cost of doing nothing, or the ‘Return On Inactivity’.

BIM, an innovative 3D digital process, gives construction professionals insights and tools to design, construct and manage projects more effectively. Irish companies have moved ahead of international competitors in the adoption of digital technologies, with Enterprise Ireland delivering targeted BIM capability programmes for SMEs since 2013.

A number of recent announcements further support Irish companies to compete in the evolving international marketplace, delivering an advantage at a time when there is much to gain from winning overseas opportunities.

As a major client of construction services, the government’s commitment to a four-year adoption of digital technologies across its public capital programme is an important milestone. A digital procurement directive was signed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD and the Minister of State for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment, Patrick O’Donovan TD.

The government announced its approval of the National BIM Council’s ‘Roadmap to Digital Transition’, the first digital strategy for the industry in Ireland, published in December. The Roadmap reports that Irish companies are aware that the adoption of international best practice positions them best for growth and do not wish to ‘reinvent the wheel’. The Roadmap’s strategy is aligned to support the needs of the SME community that makes up almost 95% of the sector in Ireland and across the European Union.

Research shows that Irish companies are well positioned to benefit from increasing demand for digitisation internationally. The third survey to benchmark levels of BIM adoption in Ireland reports that 76% of professionals are confident they possess the skills and knowledge required to deliver BIM, an increase of 9% on the 2015 figure. Research revealed a growing demand for BIM, with one company reporting, “We have hired 2 BIM modellers to work in the office and have started the process of becoming BIM enabled with a grant from Enterprise Ireland.”

The combination of increased government support and the strategy described in the Roadmap presents an opportunity for more Irish companies to become leaders in implementing common standards and guidelines to international best practice in BIM. It is essential that Irish companies use supports available to respond to demand and keep pace with international competition.

A number of designers, contractors and manufacturers lead the way in overseas markets across sectors. Scott Tallon Walker, Grafton Architects, Jones Engineering, and EPS are BIM exemplars that specialise in healthcare, education, data centre and water-related projects. Cork-based EDC were the first mechanical and electrical consultancy in the UK and Ireland to receive BIM Level 2 accreditation. As a BIM early adopter, the company capitalised on opportunities from the UK’s digital transition and developed a strong team of more than 15 employees in their London office. The progressive engineering company has delivered design work further afield. Earlier this year, EDC completed the detailed design for a $150 million commercial project in Lagos, Nigeria. Managing Director Richard O’Farrell says, “BIM enabled us to engage in a wider package of design works and a far deeper level of detailing than would have been possible before, opening up many opportunities.”

The work Enterprise Ireland has done to promote BIM to support the Construction 2020 Strategy and the recent Action Plan for Jobs 2017 has received wide industry support. These initiatives are timely and urgent, given the industry’s importance to the national economy. One in ten jobs in Ireland is employed by the construction sector. The push to digital best practice will give our companies more productive ways of working that improve competitiveness at home and overseas.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Irish fintechs post-Brexit opportunity

Irish fintechs primed to shine with post-Brexit opportunity

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Giles O’Neill, Head of Fintech at Enterprise Ireland, explains why the sector’s thought leaders see a post-Brexit opportunity for young innovative Irish companies.

Chris Skinner, fintech and financial services expert, in Dublin to deliver the keynote speech for Enterprise Ireland’s Future of Fintech conference, said, “I talk about fintech being like a parent and a child, with the bank being the parent and fintech the child. Five years ago, everyone was talking about fintech being disruptive, out to get rid of banks. But five years later, the banks are still here.”

Skinner’s view of growing collaborations between disruptive start-ups and established banks was echoed by panellists, which included Elly Hardwick, head of innovation at Deutsche Bank, Kamlesh Thakur, chairman of Mumbai-based Prime Investrade and Stephen Moran, head of research and development at Bank of Ireland, at the conference attended by more than 100 leaders, disruptors and collaborators from international banking and fintech hubs including New York, Singapore and Sydney. Attendees of the event held at Dogpatch Labs in January also met Enterprise Ireland-backed companies to discuss partnership opportunities.

With opportunities emerging as attitudes towards the sector mature, a combination of established global leaders with significant Irish operations and innovative Irish companies positions the industry well for international growth. Ireland has become a globally-recognised centre for specialist International Financial Services, with 200 Enterprise Ireland-backed companies employing nearly 10,000 people across the sector at the end of 2017. Irish companies, from start-ups to scaling and large multinational companies, have achieved significant impact in international markets, exporting to 100 countries.

Companies offer innovative solutions and services across payments, regulatory technologies and broader fintech applications, an achievement supported by astute investments and an understanding of the market that allows them to meet the requirements of the toughest professional procurement, business teams and institutions in the world. For many Irish-based companies, disruption involves delivering a better, more convenient customer experience.

Irish fintechs to watch

“Legacy banks use the SWIFT network, which is slow and opaque, charges hefty ForEx fees, and fees both to send and receive money. We believe that is not fit for purpose,” said Gary Conroy, chief commercial officer of the Irish-headquartered international payments business, TransferMate.

Irish start-up Plynk targets millennials with a service that enables them “text” one another money. “For us, payments are social,” said Charles Dowd, Plynk’s CEO and co-founder. “With the phone, you phoned places. With a mobile, you call people. You don’t think about the systems. Mobile money will be the same. It’s not about payments, it’s about people.”

The point was echoed by Conroy of TransferMate in relation crypto currencies, “Cards, banks, the blockchain are just rails. How quickly I can get the payment from A to B is all people care about.”

In the regulatory space, the cost of governance, risk and compliance is estimated at 15% of the total cost of running a financial services firm. Technology can help deliver a better customer experience there too.

“RegTech is about the intelligent use of technology to get better outcomes for clients. It’s also about stopping regulations getting in the way of the user experience,” said John Byrne, CEO of regulatory risk intelligence firm Corlytics.

Brexit may be viewed nervously by some sectors but, for fintech, it promises to bring real opportunity, according to expert Chris Skinner, “US banks are actively relocating core European services to Ireland, I’m not just hearing that, I’m seeing it,” he said. “London is still seen as a global financial centre, but for access to Europe, with the assumption that London no longer has that access to Europe, the next best place for US banks is Ireland, and not just Dublin but along the West coast too.”

This confluence of favourable market circumstances internationally and a strong ecosystem at home, makes the future of fintech bright for Irish companies, particularly in the UK and North American markets, with Europe and Asia Pacific, also featuring strongly in last year’s export figures.

 

Enjoyed this article? Read more insightful fintech articles here.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Critical Healthcare MD

How Critical Healthcare Makes a Difference to Medical Emergency Services

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 “Our research found that that organisations were suffering from a lack of purchasing control, resulting in maverick buying, excessive supplier costs, endemic overstocking.”

 

 

Key Takeouts:

  • Critical Healthcare’s search for a competitive edge led to in-depth field research, including discussions with both procurement and ambulance teams.
  • Research inspired them to develop a managed service that streamlines procurement and stock management processes while eliminating risk.
  • Enterprise Ireland awarded the company a €150,000 Business Innovation grant to assist with the further development of the system.

Case Study: Critical Healthcare

Based in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, Critical Healthcare was established 18 years ago with the aim of becoming the first choice for the emergency medical services in Ireland. Having become specialists in the market, Critical Healthcare identified further opportunities to enhance their offering and disrupt the expanding niche further afield.

“We started out supplying everything from bandages to airways, nebulisers, nasal cannulas and stretchers,” says managing director Anne Cusack. “Our customers were the emergency medical services, like the National Ambulance Service, fire service, and other rescue services. Back in those early days we were only operating in the Irish market.”

As the recession drove the market to become ever more competitive, Critical Healthcare decided it needed to examine its value proposition in full.

“Back in 2012, we were only supplying products to our customers, and we felt that we needed to move beyond that,” says Cusack. “We couldn’t continue to compete on price alone. We needed to find a way to add value to our customer offering, which would not only assist with their procurement processes, but also enable us to become part of their procurement solution.”

Successful search for competitive edge

The company’s search for a competitive edge led to in-depth field research, including discussions with both the procurement and ambulance teams within the National Ambulance Service, which uncovered potential opportunities.
Cusack explains, “Our research found that organisations were suffering from a lack of purchasing control, resulting in maverick buying, excessive supplier costs, endemic overstocking. As a result, many products were going out of date and there was poor visibility of which supplies were being used, and where. Manual purchasing processes across multiple locations were time-consuming, prone to error, and costly. Paper can be lost and manual data entry leaves room for mistakes. Increased volume of supplier queries can swamp finance departments.”

Understanding these issues inspired Critical Healthcare to develop a managed service, which provides a highly flexible solution that streamlines procurement and stock management processes, eliminates risk, improves productivity, and reduces costs.

The resulting Medlogistix Software as a Service (SaaS) system is specifically tailored to the needs of the healthcare sector. When it was piloted in the National Ambulance Service in 2012, it demonstrated savings of up to 37% on annual spend. After this success, Critical Healthcare won a tender in 2013 to implement Medlogistix across all 102 National Ambulance Service stations in Ireland, followed by contracts with Dublin Fire Brigade and the Irish Coastguard. But even that was just the beginning.

Support for becoming internationally competitive

“We knew we had something that was equally relevant to the emergency services markets internationally,” Cusack recalls. “We started looking at the UK, Scandinavian, and German markets. That’s where Enterprise Ireland enters our story. We had built the original system in-house but recognised we needed assistance to develop it further, to ensure the scalability and reliability it needed to be internationally competitive.”

Enterprise Ireland awarded the company a €150,000 Business Innovation grant in 2015, to assist with the further development of the system.

Cusack says, “We spent a year working with a development company, scoping out the needs of the system and writing the software. 2016 was spent finalising and user-testing the system, and it went live across our existing customers in 2017.”

Medlogistix, a business intelligence software package, incorporates e-procurement, stock management, and a reporting dashboard, all backed by a managed service for a traditionally manual paper-based sector.

Competing for and winning the largest international contracts

International success was already assured, due to a contract won in 2015 with Falck, the UK’s largest private ambulance service provider, thanks to the Enterprise Ireland development support.
“Falck is the largest private ambulance service provider in the world,” says Cusack. “They are headquartered in Denmark and have operations in 55 countries. We were able to compete for and win the contract in the UK because we were able to demonstrate the savings the package could offer across all elements of the procurement process and we were able to tell them what the new system would look like. Falck has been one of our biggest international advocates since.”

The next step for Critical Healthcare is expansion into continental Europe. Industry observers see strong underlying market growth for Emergency Medical Services in the EU, driven by trends including demographic shifts. In the UK, for example, the use of ambulance services has increased by 59% over a decade. The share of citizens aged 65 and older is expected to grow from 19% to 24% from 2015 to 2030 across the EU, with the number of transports required much higher for older citizens.

“The new system is working fantastically well and has made us competitive in international markets,” Cusack notes. “We are now in the next phase of its development, which we are funding ourselves. We are talking to Falck in Denmark and putting together a case for the system’s roll-out in other European countries. Our business is growing strongly. We currently employ 22 people in Kilbeggan, with forecasts to increase that to 30 over the next five years. Our turnover target for this year is €6.4 million and our goal is to grow that to €10 million in 2020.”

Learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Competitiveness supports here.

How Focusing on Competitiveness Drives Innovation in vStream

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 “Because we are selling something innovative we have to be as efficient as possible in order to get the value out of what we charge clients. That’s very important when you are creating ‘world firsts’, as we often are.”

 

Key Takeouts:

  • The recession in 2008 prompted vStream to develop a presence in the UK sooner than planned.
  • 70% of vStream’s revenues come from outside Ireland, including international sports teams and global software developers.
  • Management worked closely with Enterprise Ireland to develop an operational strategy, as efficiency is key for a creative agency.

Case Study: vStream

By boosting its competitiveness Dublin-based vStream is spending more time innovating and less time administrating.
The award-winning experiential technology company creates immersive consumer experiences for big-brand customers.

Set up in 2007, one of vStream’s first Irish commissions was a 3D rugby and soccer fan experience created for Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. The personalised, stereoscopic adventure allows visitors to the stadium to be individually called up to play for Ireland, and to do so ‘virtually’.

In 2008, the recession prompted vStream to focus on competitiveness and develop a presence in the UK sooner than planned. It paid off, resulting in a major commission from the Westfield Shopping Centre group to create world-first experiences, from ‘5D for Christmas’ to clickable video content for Spring-Summer shoppers, launching in Westfield Stratford City, one of Europe’s largest shopping centres.

Commissions from further afield followed, including work for the San Francisco 49ers – an American Football team – and the US Super Bowl.

Today, 70% of vStream’s revenues come from outside Ireland. The company has worked with global brands such as Formula One teams McLaren and Mercedes F1, and enterprise software maker SAP, using leading-edge technologies, such as Augmented and Mixed Reality and gestural holographic interfaces, the kind found in Tom Cruise movies.

Using Microsoft HoloLens, vStream recently created a holographic, interactive tour guide named Simone to demonstrate one of carmaker Audi’s newest high-tech models, a world first.

At vStream’s core are the complementary skills of co-founders Niall O’Driscoll, a creative director, and Andrew Jenkinson, a technologist.

Working with Enterprise Ireland to boost operational excellence

“What we do has always been very different and big brands are always trying to tell their story in a new way,” says O’Driscoll.

It’s a competitive space, however. Management at vStream has worked closely with Enterprise Ireland to implement operational excellence. “There are other companies in our area. They don’t look exactly like us but we cross over a number of different competitors,” says O’Driscoll.

Creativity drives innovation at the company and if the technology required to deliver an experience doesn’t exist, “we build our own”, he says. To ensure vStream has the resources to do so, operational efficiencies are vital.

“Because we are selling something innovative we have to be as efficient as possible in order to get the value out of what we charge clients. That’s very important when you are creating ‘world firsts’, as we often are.”

vStream drives competitiveness from concept through to delivery

The company recently introduced 10,000ft, a resource management and time-tracking software programme. “It allows us to track hours and integrates with our accounts process. We are trialling it as part of changes to our internal management processes designed to boost efficiencies and drive competitiveness across the board, from concept through to delivery.”

The company has also introduced cloud-based collaboration tool Slack. “Email is unwieldy, especially long chains of emails. Slack allows us to organise our communications much more efficiently.”

Much of vStream’s intellectual property has been patented and future revenues will increasingly come from licensing its technology around the world. Here, too, Enterprise Ireland funding has helped.

“We had created all this value but had realised only a small amount from our IP. We have done the R&D, proved our product in the market, now it’s about taking it out to compete in as many markets as possible. Future growth will come from exploiting that IP commercially and we are hiring someone now to help us make that move from being a projects-based to a services-and-products-based-company,” says O’Driscoll.

vStream drives competitiveness from concept through to delivery

He knows that to win in a global market no company can afford to carry excess weight.

“You need the flexibility to be able to diversify as we did during the recession,” he says. “The market shifts and changes all the time and to compete you have to be efficient and innovative enough to turn on a dime.”

Learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Competitiveness supports here.

End of year results

Positive Results but New Year means New Markets

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Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, describes how the agency will support Irish companies to target opportunities in key markets in 2018.

Despite the challenges and uncertainty created by Brexit, Irish companies continued to grow global exports in 2017, supporting strong job creation across all regions of Ireland. That positive trend was evident in the End of Year results Enterprise Ireland announced in January at the Dublin headquarters of client technology company Ding, with job creation figures up across every region, every county, and every sector on 2016.

The job creation figures were up on 2016, despite the uncertainty that Irish businesses faced in 2017 in the context of Brexit. 209,338 people are now employed in companies supported by Enterprise Ireland, the highest total employment achieved in the history of the agency. 19,000 new jobs were created across all regions in Ireland last year. The figure represents a net increase of 10,309 jobs for 2017, taking account of job losses. In line with total employment levels, the net increase in jobs, is the highest on record with Enterprise Ireland.

While we welcome these positive results, it not a time for complacency about the forecast for Irish companies in 2018. It is imperative that Irish businesses continue to build on the strength of their 2017 performance and implement robust plans to prepare for the impact of Brexit.

In recent months, Enterprise Ireland launched a number of new measures to strengthen the rural and regional economy and provide quicker access to innovation funding for exporting companies. The Market Discovery Fund is a new response from Enterprise Ireland to help companies to diversify in the context of Brexit. The fund supports Enterprise Ireland-backed companies to diversify into new markets and promote new products to existing markets. Three levels of funding are available to companies: up to €35,000, up to €75,000 and up to €150,000.

This latest initiative is just one example of the work Enterprise Ireland has undertaken to deliver our strategy, Build Scale, Expand Reach 2017-2020, focused on transforming the innovation and competitive capabilities of Irish companies, to help expand their global reach by diversifying into key export markets.

While the results for the first year of the strategy are encouraging, Brexit represents a huge challenge for Irish companies and is top of our agenda. The Market Discovery Fund, along with our intensive international programme of export-focused trade missions and our recently introduced Agile Innovation Fund, are key supports which are instrumental to helping even more companies grow and reach new export markets.

The Eurozone, and non-Eurozone European countries, have always been important markets for Irish companies but now their importance is significantly enhanced. Consolidating exports to the UK, while expanding the Irish export footprint in markets beyond the UK, is a high priority.

The strong 2017 performance by Irish businesses can be attributed to the continuing growth of an entrepreneurial climate for start-ups, allied to strong jobs growth in sectors such as construction, engineering and life sciences, which all saw an 8% increase. I was pleased to report the increase in female-led businesses, with 63 female-led start-ups receiving backing in 2017. 42% of Competitive Start Fund Approvals were to female-led start-ups.

It is encouraging that job creation was evenly spread across the country in 2017, with every county seeing increases. 64% of new jobs were created outside of Dublin, with the west, mid-west and north west seeing the largest level of increases for 2017 at 7%.

Whatever the outcome of the complex Brexit negotiations that lie ahead, it is vital that as a country we are ready to continue to support Irish companies to drive exports and expand to growing markets.

Last year, a new €60m Regional Enterprise Development Fund was launched to invest in the regional ecosystem. 4 new Regional Accelerators were established. €23m was invested in New Technology Centres – Irish Manufacturing Research and Meat Technology Ireland. 9 Regional Brexit Advisory Roadshows were held across the country. Irish Advantage digital campaign to promote sourcing from Ireland. 33% Increase in international Trade Missions and Events. 878 International buyer visits to Ireland. 1,391 New overseas contracts won by EI backed companies

The new Market Discovery Fund is just the first initiative of 2018 as we work with our partners in government and enterprise to help Irish companies build their scale and expand their reach whatever the challenges on the international horizon.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Grant engineers French success

Grant engineers French success

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In the wake of the Brexit vote, oil boiler specialist Grant Engineering immediately looked to develop its export markets.

The Offaly-based company employs up to 320 people. It also has operations in the UK, where it employs a further 80 staff and accounts for more than half of the UK oil boiler market.

This year it will launch in France, delegates attending Ambition France, an Enterprise Ireland event, heard.

How Enterprise Ireland supported market entry to France

It started by attending a French trade show, supported by Enterprise Ireland. “It was an opportunity to invite people from our industry to meet us,” said Niall Fay, a director of the company.

The company availed of Enterprise Ireland’s Business Accelerator initiative, which helps companies retain the services of an industry expert in country. “He spent two months contacting local potential distributors and clients, asking them to come to see us at the show and arranging the meetings.”

The result was an unexpected but welcome offer. “Two guys from a company that was of particular interest to us were looking for a career change and were keen to develop the business for us so we agreed to take them on an consultancy basis. We were lucky to find French people with 40 years industry experience between them.”

A Market Access Grant from Enterprise Ireland enabled the company to localise the product for the French market. The company then set up offices and a training facility. Grant established in France as an SAS company, the most common limited liability structure in France, opened bank accounts and registered for VAT.

Having French nationals heading up the company was a huge advantage. “One of the biggest concerns we had was finding someone within the industry who would come and join a company that is a complete unknown in France. We have gotten over that hurdle and now we are looking at sales. It is very common in France to have sales agents all over the various regions of France and that is the route to market we are going to go.”

Here too, having French nationals who know the market, and can assess candidates, has been a boon.

His French hires have extensive knowledge of the agent network and have already selected 12 they reckon can deliver. “That would have been very hard for us to do,” said Fay.

Establishing the right corporate structure is vital, said Noel Cunningham, head of FDI at Mazars in Dublin. While a liaison office can be a good way to test the waters, incurring no tax liabilities in the country, it isn’t a sustainable solution because it precludes the signing of contracts.

And if you have three or four sales people on the ground, you could find you have a taxable presence there.

Hiring locally is important. “But doing your due diligence in relation to who you hire is extremely important too,” said Cunningham.

“Apart from the cost and effort involved in hiring unsuitable candidates, it can also damage your brand. Make sure there is someone back at base who is controlling them and be clear about what type of reports they should be generating,” he said.

Work with people who have an understanding of the different culture and language, said Fabrice Folliot of F4B Development, a French national and market accelerator.

“The mistake is to come into the market from a very strong position in Ireland, even a dominant one, and think that going into to France from that position would be easy. It’s not the case,” said Folliot, citing the common tourist experience of Paris by way of analogy.

Efforts to localise essential for French market

“If you start to ask directions in English, no one will stop for you. If you start even with broken French, to show you are making an effort, people will. In business, it’s about making an effort and working with the right kind of people. That is a positive sign that shows you want to invest in, and plan to be in, the market for the long term.”

Despite France’s reputation for bureaucracy, the time it takes to set up a company has been reduced to a matter of minutes online, pointed out Hubert Levesque, managing director of Morgan McKinley France, a recruitment agency.

The “Macron effect” has seen economic growth of more than 2% and unemployment of 5% at executive level, leading to a tightening of labour market, Levesque warned. The result is salary inflation of 7% this year.  “All of this makes it harder and harder to get good high profile candidates if you have a good brand. So when you are entering with an unknown brand, it’s even harder.”

Being open to locating outside of Paris can help.

“Everybody wants to go to Paris but that is going to be more expensive and you are going to be more anonymous. There are other cities too to consider, including dynamic ones such as Lyons, Marseilles or Bordeaux, which is just two hours from Paris by train. Salaries are cheaper there because you can offer a better quality of life.”

Take advantage of the supports available to you, including Ireland’s short “distance to power”.

“When we opened our French office the Irish ambassador, government Minister Bruton and Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon all came,” said Tony Richardson, CEO of Venn Life Sciences.

“Our French staff were gobsmacked by the level of access an Irish company can get to a government representative, which you simply would not get in France. It made them feel really important and that they work for an Irish company which is really important to the Irish government.”

For more information on doing business in France download our Going Global guide to France.

Linesight Maximises Data Centre Opportunity in the Netherlands

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“We had started doing a lot of data centre projects for US multinationals in Ireland so we decided to look at the Netherlands as Amsterdam is a hub of activity for data centres.” – Paul Butler, director, Linesight

 

 

 

Key Takeouts:

  • Enterprise Ireland trade missions and market introductions a key success factor.
  • Excellence in service and personnel a key differentiator and competitive advantage.
  • Dutch data centre business a bridgehead for growing other sectors and European markets.

Case Study: Linesight

Five years ago Dublin-headquartered firm Linesight decided to go on fact-finding missions to the Netherlands with the help of Enterprise Ireland. It was a move which has led to around 70% growth in its fee base in that market since then and an increase in its team based there from four to 30 people.

Linesight provides professional services and strategic support to the global construction industry. Projects span a range of industry sectors including commercial, data centres, life sciences, healthcare, transportation and infrastructure and retail.

Originally established in 1974 as Bruce Shaw, Linesight rebranded in 2016 with a view to having a name that could be owned in all markets. The name Linesight was inspired by the company having its clients’ goals in their direct line of sight from initial concept through to successful project completion.

With staff located across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and North America, Linesight increased its global headcount by 135 and recorded turnover of about €60m for the group in 2016. It now has 17 offices around the world and has delivered projects in 40 countries.

Linesight’s growth in the first 30 years or so was mainly focused on Ireland and the UK where it established a number of offices. When the recession hit in 2008, it had built up a 25% market share in the domestic market for professional services to the construction industry. It had also generated a limited amount of international business.

The downturn in construction at home prompted the company to look at international markets more keenly and the Benelux region – and the Netherlands in particular – seemed a promising area to focus on. It had worked on five or six small projects there, but further to building up expertise and skills in data centre projects it saw an opportunity.

“We had started doing a lot of data centre projects for US multinationals in Ireland so we decided to look at the Netherlands as Amsterdam is a hub of activity for data centres,” says Linesight director Paul Butler.

“In addition, a lot of pharmaceutical multinationals were starting to set up subsidiary plants in the Benelux region. We recognised that we had the relevant in-house expertise and key staff delivering professional services in these areas. We wanted to retain that staff and the Netherlands was of particular interest to us.”

 

Linesights’s Partnership with Enterprise Ireland:

  • Attended a series of Enterprise Ireland workshops on data centres.
  • Benefitted from introductions to the market/local contractors organised by Enterprise Ireland.
  • Participated in Taoiseach’s trade mission to the Netherlands and Germany.

To see how Enterprise Ireland has enabled Linesight’s success, click here.

Competitive advantage through people

Over the years Linesight had established a partnership approach with clients based on consistency and clarity, and it has a proven track record in terms of quality and timely delivery of projects. This stood to the company when it came to building business in the Netherlands.

“For some of our clients developing projects in the Dutch market we were preferred bidders and travelled there with them as part of their team, offering the same service as we had in the Irish market,” Butler explains.

“Other projects involved competitive bidding as companies may have had their own in-house auditing functions – but we were also very competitive in winning that work.”

Some multinational clients even requested that certain individuals from Linesight work on projects with them in the Netherlands, Butler adds, “Our people are key in terms of generating repeat business. Senior project managers see projects through from cradle to grave and directors oversee projects on a 24/7 basis. The personal relationships built up over time have been very important.”

The Netherlands has been a relatively easy market for Linesight to enter as English is widely spoken and its framework in terms of contracting is similar to Ireland’s. “Being fluent contractually is a different thing than being able to speak a language. In other European countries language can be a barrier in this respect. We demand that contractors deal with us in English in the Netherlands,” says Butler.

That being said, once Linesight started to focus on the Dutch market, it invested a lot of time in ensuring it had the right contractors and partners to deliver projects to the standard required. It also had to get to grips with different regulations in relation to construction, planning codes and timeframes.

“Even within the Netherlands different regions are more regulated in terms of construction. For example, near the German border there is still a lot of heavy industry, which contrasts with the Amsterdam area,” says Butler.

“We had to stretch our web of contractors beyond the Amsterdam area. Now we have a high level of tried and trusted partners in the Netherlands that we know will deliver for us.”

Now that Linesight is established in the Dutch market it is looking at new opportunities within its existing client base, such as in the retail and pharmaceutical sectors. It also wants to take advantage of some new areas, in particular in relation to the local supply chain and newly built logistics centres.

“There are some very good companies competing with us for business. What differentiates us, in addition to our people, is the fact that we are an all-in company that can provide cost management, project management and risk assessment. This is vital for a lot of big multinationals,” notes Butler.

“A significant proportion of our people have backgrounds in civil, electrical or mechanical engineering – so our service is not just about number crunching, they can understand the design. They can go through drawings with clients in great detail and are fluent in engineering language.”

Gaining a foothold in the Netherlands has led to Linesight building business in Germany and Belgium. Once clients’ projects are completed in the Netherlands, it has extended its network to continue working with them in other locations.

“They want the consistent, clean approach of dealing with us, rather than having to educate a new local provider in their needs and ways. The flexibility of our people and operation has been key to our success.”

Top Tips for Exporting to Europe:

  • Be flexible and adapt to the needs of major multinational customers.
  • Build a strong local presence to really be successful in a market.
  • Harness the Irish mentality of ‘getting the job done’.

For more details, click here.

How PerfectCard Found the Perfect Incentive for Market Discovery

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 “You can’t just go into a market the size of the UK believing you will do the same things you do in Ireland. We decided to target the reseller market for our incentive product in the UK. Going the reseller rather than the direct route will increase our reach greatly.”
Natasha Brasier, PerfectCard

Key Takeouts:

  • PerfectCard is a gifts and incentives tool for both customers and employees.
  • An Enterprise Ireland market research grant helped PerfectCard pick the right strategy for entering the UK, targeting resellers instead of a more direct approach.
  • They won a place on the Enterprise Ireland Innovation for Growth Programme, which grew their UK presence and led to two new partners.

Case Study: PerfectCard

Founded in 2006, PerfectCard has established itself as a leading gift and incentives brand, with its distinctive cards widely used by shopping centres and retailers around Ireland as a gifting solution. Over the past decade the company has expanded and developed its offering to include employee and customer incentive products and has just launched Pecan, a new employee expenses service aimed primarily at Small and Medium Enterprises.

The company has also been preparing the ground for significant growth in the UK market, principally in the incentives area. “We already have customers in the UK and are about to dedicate more resources to growing sales there”, explain PerfectCard business development manager, Natasha Brasier.

The acquisition of a Galway-based IT company some years ago played a critical role in this strategy. “The acquisition allowed us to introduce additional features and benefits”, says Brasier. “For example, customers using the cards to reward employees were able to load them onsite. The solution allowed us to start selling into the UK market. Our customers include a number of Irish- based companies with overseas offices that started using our solution in other markets.”

PerfectCard was the first company in its space to receive e-money authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland, which is also facilitating its international growth.

Enterprise Ireland support has also been crucial, with the company participating in the Innovation for Growth Programme, while Brasier will shortly complete the Enterprise Ireland-sponsored international sales programme at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)

“A few years ago, we also received a market research grant to research the UK market and some great advice through Enterprise Ireland”, she adds. The grant helped the company to assess the best route to market to reach their target customers. The company subsequently developed a much more structured sales process and approach for the UK market.

“You can’t just go into a market the size of the UK believing you will do the same things you do in Ireland”, says Brasier. “We decided to target the reseller market for our incentive product in the UK. We have a few companies using the product there, but going the reseller rather than the direct route will increase our reach greatly.

“The response has been very good, and we have identified two potential partners to work with. They recognise the value of having a separate staff rewards card to pay bonuses or other incentives. It shows that a bit of thought went into it. If it gets paid through payroll it disappears, but if the cash is on a separate card, employees can spend it straightaway or use it to save up for holidays or other treats.”

The intention after that is to grow the business out. “Once customers start using our incentive card solution it will be relatively easy to cross-sell our other products, such as Pecan.”

The launch of the Pecan product in the Irish and UK markets is a particular area of focus currently.

“Pecan will give SMEs and their employees much greater control over expenses. The card can be used to pay for employee expenses and the company gets to view expenditure in real time. The software also allows employees to take pictures of receipts and upload them, thus making reporting much easier.”

Click here to learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Diversification supports.

Innovation and Tradition Combine in Oakpark Foods Winning Formula

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“We are now a key player in the UK market and have contracts with Morrisons, Aldi UK and others. We had to make a substantial investment in our factory, technology and management team to do it and it wouldn’t have been possible without Enterprise Ireland support.”
David Brett, Oakpark Foods

Key Takeouts:

  • Oakpark Foods availed of Enterprise Ireland’s food innovation supports to improve their packaging and develop new products.
  • It has enjoyed significant growth in recent years, largely driven by exports, but sees Brexit as a major issue.
  • The company now employs almost 100 people, with annual sales of just under €31 million.

Case Study: Oakpark Foods

Oakpark Foods has established itself as a leading bacon products supplier in the hugely competitive British retail market. “40% of our business is now in the UK,” says general manager David Brett. “We have been able to differentiate ourselves from our competitors there by using innovative packaging, clever new product development, and bespoke unique cures.”

The Cahir, County Tipperary-based company is part of the family-owned Brett Group, which has been supplying farm inputs in the region for almost 80 years. “We are now in the fourth generation,” he says. “The business dates back to the 1940s. Our core business is animal feed manufacturing. We sell dairy, pig and ruminant feed to famers around Leinster and Munster.”

The company acquired Oakpark Foods in the early 1990s. “Back then it was a small operation supplying local supermarkets and shops with bacon products. When we came on board we looked at how we could add value. After that, the opportunity came up to buy the nearby Sunglen Pig Farm which produces 800 pigs a week. Our mill in Callan in County Kilkenny manufactures the pig feed using a bespoke diet; this is then fed to our own pigs on our farm; and we produce top-quality consumer packs of bacon joints and rashers at Oakpark. This gives us unique seed to fork provenance.”

Oakpark has enjoyed significant growth in recent years, largely driven by exports, according to Brett.

“We are now a key player in the UK market and have contracts with Morrisons, Aldi UK and others,” he adds. “We had to make a substantial investment in our factory, technology and management team to do it and it wouldn’t have been possible without Enterprise Ireland support.”

The breakthrough into the UK was also facilitated by the growth of the discount chains in Ireland. “We supply both Aldi and Lidl here and they introduced us to the right people in the UK. That was a great help. But we also had to invest in a very significant R&D programme and we introduced a number of first-to-market products there. We used packaging technology to extend the shelf life of our products, we developed a new-style American streaky bacon product, and we also introduced 50 per cent fat-reduced lardons which appeal to increasingly health-conscious consumers.”

All of the R&D was carried out inhouse with Enterprise Ireland support. “It was a lot of hard work, but it had to be done. If we didn’t have a different story to tell we would have just been another bacon supplier.”

The company now employs almost 100 people, with annual sales of just under €31 million and is implementing a strategy to grow turnover by 33 per cent over the coming years. That strategy also takes Brexit into account.

“Brexit is a major issue for everyone involved in the food industry and we have to make our business as lean and efficient as possible in response,” he points out.

The bacon business will not suffer to the same extent as others, however, as Brett explains. “80% of the bacon sold in the UK is of EU origin and British people aren’t going to stop eating bacon overnight. The traditional bacon butty will remain a staple part of the diet. But Brexit is a serious issue nevertheless and we have done a lot of scenario planning. Selling into the UK will not be as simple as it is today. That’s a given.”

The company is not going to rely on a continuing taste for bacon in its key export market and is investing €5 million in a new facility in Clonmel with Enterprise Ireland support. The new manufacturing facility will produce a new range aimed at mainland Europe and further afield.

“It’s a completely new venture and will be up and running very shortly,” says Brett. “We are diversifying away from the UK market. The UK will remain important to us though and we are in there for the long haul. We have one of the most efficient slicing lines in these islands. That’s vitally important. In the end, it’s all about the price of a packet of rashers.”

Click here to learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation supports.

How DEM Machines manufactured success in new markets.

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“Our export sales have trebled over the past three years. We are now looking at opportunities in Canada, the US and Australia.”

– John McCann, Operations Manager

Key Takeouts:

  • DEM Machines provide software for real-time factory floor data, in addition to bespoke industrial weighing equipment.
  • After their domestic success, they now look to international markets for growth.
  • Their export sales have trebled with Enterprise Ireland support, and are now looking at entering North America and Australia.

Case Study: DEM Machines

DEM Machines has seen export sales triple and employment grow by 50% over the past three years, since accessing Enterprise Ireland market research supports. The company, which counts leading food companies such as Kerry Group, Kepak, AIBP and Glanbia among its domestic customers, initially focused on the UK for overseas expansion.

DEM Machines is a Kildare-based company that manufactures bespoke industrial weighing equipment and develops industrial software solutions for a range of customers, mainly in the food and meat processing sectors.

“There are two interlinked strands to the business”, explains operations manager John McCann.

“We are a software company. We provide industry-specific software solutions, based on the award-winning SAP Business One platform. We also manufacture and supply the hardware that the software runs on.”

“There is a lot going on in a food processing plant”, McCann notes.

“We offer a fully integrated factory solution that connects back-office financial processes with factory floor processes, such as barcode scanning, label printing, handheld devices, weighing scales and data capture devices. That gives managers access to real-time factory floor data, enabling them to make quicker, better decisions. The idea is to provide food processors with a one-stop shop for all production and financial processing needs.”

A decision to re-energise the business was made three years ago. “We saw an opportunity to develop new products and services for the markets we serve”, McCann says. “We got rid of a lot of older stuff and built new software on the SAP platform. That was when we re-engaged with Enterprise Ireland.”

The company’s domestic success meant that the Irish market now offered limited prospects for growth. “The domestic market will always be a certain size”, McCann continues. “While we count all the major players among our customers here, we know the Irish market inside out. It is growing but at a relatively low rate. We had to look beyond the domestic market if we wanted to grow the business. We had to find additional markets and that’s where the engagement with Enterprise Ireland came in. We had worked with them previously on other developments and wanted to talk to them about overseas growth.”

The company initially looked at the UK and, with Enterprise Ireland assistance, has enjoyed considerable success in the market. “Our export sales have trebled over the past three years. That’s still a small part of the business but all growth is being driven by international markets. We are now looking at opportunities in Canada, the US and Australia. They use the English language and are mature markets with similar food and meat processing sectors and standards to our own. It’s at an early stage for now but that’s where we see future growth coming from.”

Enterprise Ireland market research supports have proven very helpful in assessing the UK market. “Enterprise Ireland were of great assistance”, McCann says. “It’s not just a grant. We used the Market Research Centre in East Point extensively. The team are very skilled at market research and assisted us in identifying excellent quality market intelligence.”

“Getting the grant is straightforward”, he adds. “You submit your plans and do projections. The turnaround time is very quick. We understood what they wanted from us, and they understood what we wanted to do. It was a very good meeting of minds. I would absolutely recommend other companies with export growth ambitions to talk to Enterprise Ireland.”