Meet our four EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalists in the Established category

Kieran Cusack and Tom O’Connor

Kieran Cusack and Tom O’Connor founded building and civil engineering contractor Conack in 2008 with nothing more than two jeeps and one trailer between them. Its head office is based on the Ballysimon Road in Limerick, with regional offices in Cork, Dublin, and Galway. Conack delivers specialist construction solutions to the public and private sector clients, operating across multiple sectors. The company achieved a turnover of €122 million last year.

What vision/light bulb moment prompted you to start up in business?

Like many in 2008, we were facing an industry in decline. We had seen the combative approach taken by other players in the industry and asked ourselves: why do companies operate this way and can we do better?

Describe your business model and what makes your business unique

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When the business started out 14 years ago, the construction sector was in rapid decline. To succeed in this climate, we adopted an anti-claims approach. We endeavoured to engage our clients and their design teams early with mitigation measures and value engineering solutions.

By embracing this collaborative approach to contracting — sitting around a table rather than at opposite sides — we have an order book full of either repeat clients or new clients enticed by its robust reputation.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?

In terms of tangible achievements, breaking Dublin with our first large-scale project, the Moxy Hotel, was a significant achievement. A tricky project to take on, with multiple constraints, we knew if we successfully delivered it we would leave a mark.

What was your “back-to-the-wall” moment and how did you overcome it?

It has to be the decision to start this journey when we did. Ireland in 2008 was looking at austerity. The industry had been decimated. We chose to back ourselves, believing we could succeed.

What were the best and the worst pieces of advice you received starting out?

The best advice still drives us today: lead by example and be humble. For us, this in practice means to be in first and leave last; reconcile your own bank statement; and surround yourself with people smarter/better than you.

The worst advice was: “Don’t do it, the timing is not right.” Given the year we started out, you wouldn’t have been laughed at for taking this advice. Had we taken this advice and not backed ourselves, who knows where we would be?

To what extent does your business trade internationally and what are your plans?

Currently we have no developments overseas. We have, however, many clients from around the world that we are engaged with.

We believe growth must be achieved sustainably. Conack has a very strong pipeline of secured projects for the coming year and is forecasting double-digit growth with revenue set to hit €150 million.

What is your growth-funding path?

The business has a strong net current asset position, and high cash reserves. Due to the volatility involved in the industry we believe in always having a high cash reserve in order to fund strategic opportunities and challenges.

What are the big disruptive forces in your industry?

There is no doubt that inflation is a big risk item in the industry at present. Our approach to mitigating the risks of inflation is to work with our clients and design teams through an open and transparent manner looking at value engineering options and risk-sharing mechanisms.

What are you doing to disrupt, innovate and improve your offering?

We are leaning into modern methods of construction through the championing of off-site or modular construction. The benefits of off-site manufacturing has potential that is only waiting to be tapped into.

It can be a sustainable means of building, with less wastage going to landfill. Quality is guaranteed in factory conditions.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

We often see people chasing the end goal or market target, rather than ensuring the foundations are in place to make success sustainable.

What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur?

It’s okay to make mistakes. You can learn from your mistakes; you can’t learn a lesson that hasn’t been taught.

Louis Copeland

Louis Copeland is a retailer with more than 60 years’ experience. He has six shops around the country as well as an online shop. Suits have historically been his core business but now he dresses customers for all aspects of life.

What light bulb moment prompted you to start up in business?

The business was started by my father in 1933, and I carried on from him, cutting my teeth in it from the age of 10, starting by sweeping the workshop floor every day after school.

What is your business model and what makes your business unique?

We are in the business of making our customers feel great and it’s this customer-centric ethos that makes our business unique.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?

Apart from being nominated for the EY entrepreneur award, I won the Drapers retailer of the year a few years ago.

What was your “back-to-the-wall” moment and how did you overcome it?

When Covid hit we had to think outside the box very quickly. We faced the problem head-on and found new ways of serving our customers digitally. I would say it was a moment of truth, and we as a group and team excelled in every way.

What moment or deal would you cite as the turning point for the company?

When we took over AIB. Well, actually we bought the AIB premises on Capel Street and that’s now our Capel Street store.

What were the best and the worst pieces of advice you received when starting out?

My father told me “Look after the customer and the business will look after itself”.

Somebody else told me: “Use your money to invest in property.”

To what extent does your business trade internationally and what are your plans?

We have a healthy international online business, which was greatly helped by lockdowns. During this time, it didn’t matter where in the world you were, as either way you were not able to visit the local store.

Where would you like your business to be in three years?

At the moment, business is extremely strong and hopefully we can maintain that momentum. We forecast further steady growth in the stores over the next five years and expect to grow our online business by more than 100 per cent. It is important for us to keep the stores interesting and energetic in order to attract our customers online and in store.

What are the big disruptive forces in your industry?

The online marketplace is a challenge and allows international competitors to trade in our market. Casualisation is also a threat to our suiting business, which is why we have invested so heavily in our casual offering.

What are you doing to disrupt, innovate and improve your offering?

We are improving our website and digital platforms all the time to ensure we are ahead of the curve and always seeking new ways to deliver fantastic product and customer service. Our strong focus on casual wear continues in order to support our customers and help them dress for smart casual as they re-enter the office.

What makes your company a good place to work?

We offer a career in retail rather than using retail as a stopgap. Some of our people have been with us for more than 35 years.

We have a flat management structure. This way everyone is a part of the team and enjoys what they do. One of the most important things to remember in business is, if you treat your people like royalty, they in turn will pass this treatment on to your customers.

How is the current inflationary environment impacting your business?

We are trying very hard to combat price increases and are in talks with our suppliers to try and keep this to a minimum.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

Not being in the business enough. The other one would be not listening to their teams and customers enough.

Harriet Dunne, ICE Comfort Slat Mats

Harriet Dunne is managing director of ICE Comfort Slat Mats, which designs and manufactures custom-designed and fitted slat mats for use on concrete slats in cattle sheds. The mats are used in the dairy, beef and veal industries.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?

The mats have been recognised both here and abroad with awards for technical innovation, environmental and welfare issues, among others. But the best achievements are repeat customers and recommendations and referrals by those farmers to other farmers.

What was your “back-to-the-wall” moment and how did you overcome it?

The recession. Just as we were taking off with the mats, our legacy business, which was very much attached to the construction industry, resulted in a 60 per cent decrease in sales.

ICE had to date funded the development of the cow mats. The mats were well into the “go” phase. After knocking on the doors of many banks, Ulster Bank and Enterprise Ireland stepped in to help us continue to fund development and expand the factory.

What were the best and the worst pieces of advice you received when starting out?

Best advice: Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity. Trust your gut instinct. Watch the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves — my mother’s advice, and it took her a long time to get me as a young person to see the wisdom of those words.

Worst advice: I am sure there have been lots, but probably only by way of negative commentary as opposed to advice, when we initially launched the mats.

To what extent does your business trade internationally and what are your future ambitions?

Circa 70 per cent. We plan to expand into new international markets over the next three to five years with the development of innovations within the agri sector. We hope to penetrate into countries with environmental and welfare issues within the farming sectors at their forefront.

What is your growth-funding path?

We are currently self-funded. The company has no debt.

Where would you like your business to be in three years?

Further penetrating new markets with another innovative system in development.

What are the big disruptive forces in your industry?

Environmental Legislation with regards to ammonia emissions. We have aligned our strategy along with effecting change at a governmental level to have changes, as in the Dutch model, brought into effect in Ireland.

Germany are following suit with the Vera protocol. Floorings must be rigorously tested within their parameters over a stated period of time to achieve reductions in ammonia emissions from the floor and tank below in cattle sheds.

We have always participated in testing and these changes in legislation will have a positive effect on our sales.

How will your market look in three years?

I believe there will be fewer farms in existence but there will be bigger, more concentrated operations with a lot more farmers finishing cattle on mats. When we get in at the design phase of the build, the end result overall is better for the farmer.

What are you doing to disrupt, innovate and improve the products or services you offer?

We continue with R&D to innovate, continue to engage with farmers and stakeholders and effect change at governmental level. We are constantly testing new raw materials on test farms.

This is fundamental to the design process, where we also get feedback from the farmer. The mats with the new materials are put down for at least a year in heavy traffic areas such as feed bunks, then lifted and taken back here for multifactorial testing and results.

How is the current inflationary environment affecting your business?

Apart from escalating raw materials prices over the past two years and general running costs increasing with inflation, we also now have to contend with a lack of available workforce, coming into our busy season.

We are fortunate that we had hedged our electricity and gas prices to the end of 2022, but all will change in 2023 unless there is intervention.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

Second-guessing themselves. It can happen so easily, especially if your first attempt is unsuccessful.

Andrew Lynas, Lynas Foodservice

Andrew Lynas is managing director of Lynas Foodservice, which delivers a range of 5,000 food products to more than 4,500 customers daily throughout Ireland and Scotland with a staff of more than 600 across six sites, and 11 food outlets. It has annual turnover of more than €200 million.

What light bulb moment prompted you to start up in business?

I am a third generation in the family business, with my grandfather having started with a small fish shop and my dad growing into frozen food. My vision was to expand in range and geography and ensure we offered a fantastic service to our customer.

Over the past 15 years we have done that and also we have a retail offering in the food outlet that is a unique value proposition.

What makes your business unique?

Our people make us unique as we understand the reality of a busy kitchen and the needs of the chef or operator, and as a family-owned and managed business we can respond quickly.

We also run 11 food outlets, giving both the general public and smaller trade access to food-service quality products at bulk prices.

What was your “back-to-the-wall” moment and how did you overcome it?

Covid-19 and the loss of 85 per cent of business in 10 days. We had our food outlet business, which was great, and so we maximised sales there and we overcame things through teamwork, working with customers and not having any debt.

What were the best and the worst pieces of advice you received when starting out?

The best was to be aggressive and bold in everything, and to avoid debt. It has been a great piece of advice to go back to ensuring we remain innovative but financially prudent.

The worst was the line “you have big shoes to fill taking over from your dad”. Becoming manager director at 27 was young but I ignored the big shoes advice and decided to be myself. Incidentally, my dad told me to ignore that advice as well.

To what extent does your business trade internationally and what are your plans/ambitions?

We have a growing and vibrant Scotland business, which has made a real impact and we want to establish deep roots there. The north of England would also seem an obvious next step in the future, too.

What is your growth funding path?

My great-grandfather was a fantastic coffin maker but a lousy businessman and got into debt so my grandfather had to pay off a money lender. That story has been passed down each generation and so we fund growth when we have the money in the bank.

Where would you like your business to be in three years?

We want to grow market share significantly in the Republic and Scotland with our customer offering alongside more food outlets and ensuring we look after our Northern Ireland market, too.

How is the current inflationary environment impacting your business?

There has been significant food inflation coming out of Covid and with the current war and energy crisis. Food inflation is running at high single digits and that is causing pressure for both our suppliers and customers.

Managing the increases is difficult as you have to pass these on to the customer. I think we may be in for 12-18 months of these price levels.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

We can all be too optimistic in our sales or profit aspirations at the start of a new business or new business opportunity, and so not keeping your feet on the ground and not realising that cash is king is too often a mistake we all make.

What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur?

Begin with the end in mind. What are you hoping to achieve and what would be success? Once you can understand and answer this it keeps you focused on the end goal. Too often we can get blown off course or settle for second best without knowing the end goal.