EY Entrepreneur of the Year profiles: From pets to solar energy, healthcare and food catering, here are some of this year’s nominees

Charles Cosgrave, Village Vets

Charles Cosgrave is chief executive of Village Vets, a veterinary practice that provides medical and surgical healthcare services for domestic pets. It employs 250 people across 19 clinics in Dublin, Meath and Wicklow. This year the practice will provide care to 125,000 animals.

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

While working in the UK, I saw the future of veterinary with multi-site, multidisciplinary veterinary practices dedicated to small animals. I wanted to recreate this in Ireland and build a brand around that concept.

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

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We are an independent, family-owned veterinary practice for pets in an industry that is seeing huge corporate consolidation. We offer a subscription service for €23 per month where a pet can have unlimited vet visits, annual vaccinations, an annual blood test and 20 per cent off a selection of products.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?

We are now the largest independent veterinary practice in Ireland, employing 250 staff across 18 sites, which have arisen from 11 acquisitions and eight greenfield builds. This year our dedicated team will provide expert care for 125,000 patients.

We also run the largest veterinary training and development programme outside of a university setting in Ireland.

What was your ‘back to the wall’ moment and how did you overcome it?

Covid-19 was a nightmare. As an emergency service we remained open. In April 2020, I rewrote the business plan. Our bank laughed at us when I called looking for funding. During the Covid period, we acquired three new businesses and secured four new leases.

What moment/deal would you cite as the ‘game changer’ or turning point for the company?

In 2013, we acquired two veterinary practices in Dundrum and Stillorgan. These clinics transformed how we managed the business as well as giving us critical mass to develop our teams and client offering.

We undertook a programme of rebranding that allowed us to drive awareness of our service, unify our message and own who we are.

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

We are Ireland-based, but have ambition to scale the business to create a recognised brand in veterinary care on a wider scale.

What is your growth funding path?

We have been predominantly bootstrapped until now with some funding from banking partners. Future expansion plans may involve more structured debt.

How will your market look in three years and where would you like your business to be?

Humanisation of pets is a trajectory that is here to stay with us. As an industry we need to keep pace with that. Village Vets is fortunate to have very experienced people that can deliver human-level care, procedures and treatments for pets to keep up with the pace of demand and industry changes. We want to keep elevating the standard of care.

What are the big disruptive forces in your industry?

We have been working with artificial intelligence since 2019 to deliver faster and more accurate diagnostic test results for our patients. This will continue to evolve and help our teams to reach a clinical resolution for our patients sooner and improve outcomes for pets across the board.

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

Traditionally, pet parents have paid for each visit they have with a vet via a consultation fee similar to visiting a doctor or dentist. We have introduced a subscription model for €23 per month where each pet can have unlimited veterinary visits, all their vaccinations and an annual blood test included in that fee.

Is AI impacting your business and industry?

It is a huge driver and influence over our business and also the delivery of healthcare for pets. It is currently allowing us to provide more accurate diagnostic test results in a shorter time frame for our patients.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

Many entrepreneurs try to solve all the problems themselves in the early days and while there is a great excitement about being able to do that, it can lead to issues in the long run.

Ciaran Marron, Activ8 Solar Energies

Ciaran Marron is chief executive and founder of Activ8 Solar Energies, which has installed more than 100,000 solar panels across Ireland. It provides comprehensive solar solutions, including site assessment, system design, installation and ongoing support.

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

Growing up in a house where my father and several of my uncles were self-employed gave me ambition. The lightbulb moment for my own business came when working long hours, I decided to take the risk go out of my own.

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

On both the residential and commercial side, we deliver an end-to-end solution – taking the client from design, to survey, right through installation and maintenance. It’s a true turnkey solar solution with a focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?

On paper, it could be the growth of our relationship with SSE Airtricity into a 50 per cent acquisition in 2018 and the delivery our new NZEB headquarters in Monaghan.

But being honest, it has to be the fact that we built our business through a recession, keeping full employment throughout, and coming out the side of it a stronger business. We now employ close to 200 people – the majority of whom are from the local area.

What was your ‘back to the wall’ moment and how did you overcome it?

The recession hit in the early stages of our business when our focus was on electrical and mechanical domestic and commercial solutions. Luckily it was followed with an ‘Aha’ moment, when I made the decision to fully diversify into the renewable energy space.

What moment/deal would you cite as the ‘game changer’ or turning point for the company?

Without doubt the game changer for us was the SSE Airtricity acquisition in 2018. We had an excellent relationship with them to that point and with their support/backing it allowed us to deliver large commercial projects to our standards.

To what extent does your business trade internationally?

As of 2023 we have expanded into the UK market on a commercial level, delivering projects both in Scotland and England with a view to opening a division within the UK next year. We are targeting expansion into Europe in 2027. With this target in mind we are currently working through a research project on the opportunities presenting themselves in Europe.

What is your growth funding path?

Activ8 Energies has benefited by building a strong financial foundation over the past number of years. To date, the business has been self-funded and financed its year-on-year growth by reinvesting profits into the business.

Future expansion plans will likely be financed through a mix of both internal and external financing and Activ8 are speaking with several potential finance partners in this regard.

How will your market look in three years and where would you like your business to be?

We expect to see year-on-year growth of circa 100 per cent, just like we have over the previous few years – as well as our own expansion into other related renewable sectors.

AI impacting your business and industry?

Some of the more established AI technologies have brought efficiencies in fleet routing, OCR improvements for documentation and administration as well as automating parts of health-and-safety checks through image recognition and training.

It’s all positive to date and the real growth in this space at the minute is the focus on solar generation and battery storage management using predictive analysis and allowing AI to manage the energy balance between homes, businesses and the grid.

How is the current inflationary environment impacting your business?

On a negative side, we have had to endure rising costs in sourcing our products and in delivering our service through rising labour and material costs. There has been a positive knock-on effect resulting from rising electricity prices, with all payback periods on investment in solar panels being reduced considerably.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

The biggest mistake I see is persistence. Whereby someone persists in a product, service or market that is not working, or a business model that is not working. After this, the biggest mistake I see on an ongoing basis is business leaders not empowering their own people.

Douglas Adams, Connected Health Group

Douglas Adams is the founder and chief executive of Connected Health Group, which was established in 2013 in Belfast. It has grown from a team of 47 to more than 1,800 staff members in that period. It delivers 35,000 hours of care per week, amounting to more than 5½ million physical care visits annually.

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

After mum had an accident and needed help, we had carers come to the home. I soon realised that the sector was crying out for disruption, better training, increased efficiency and higher pay for carers.

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

Our model redefines traditional homecare. We want to keep people at home, ensuring they live with dignity and independence. We hire empathetic individuals, provide accredited training, offer a career pathway and use smart systems for smoother operations.

What was your ‘back to the wall’ moment and how did you overcome it?

There have been a few: nearly running out of money; losing a large supply contract; competitive tensions. Covid-19 was the most challenging period. My team made a few early decisions to protect and continue the service to work closely with the commissioners and families to provide what care they needed or wanted.

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

We are one of a few all-island care providers as we scale in-country and develop efficiencies in operations online recruitment and training. We have ambitions for UK and US expansion either by partnership or acquisition.

All countries are experiencing the same issues – ageing populations and overcrowded hospitals. I believe our model will travel well to ease problems for families and build capacity in communities.

What is your growth funding path?

We are an efficient operator at scale, borrowing wisely to buy or investing to grow organically. We seek and are open to opportunities to partner with like-minded operators or investors.

How will your market look in three years and where would you like your business to be?

The home care market is a growth market. We have ambition to grow the core business across the country, upskill our people to undertake more complex care and to ease the burden on the HSE and the NHS. In three years, we would like to be in the top three in Ireland and in five years’ time we would like to be a significant player in UK.

Is AI impacting your business and industry?

AI is very exciting, and will no doubt have massive implications for home care – if not in the front line then certainly out in the community where we meet, greet and support our clients. It will continually update and improve processes around rostering as well as financial and regulatory functions. However, nothing should take the place of face-to-face care. Human interaction is vital and necessary for good, safe care.

What makes your company a good place to work? For example, diversity and inclusion, flexible working, supported learning, health promotion, CSR initiatives?

Connected Health is a melting pot of diversity, embracing differences in age, gender, roles and communities. Our culture prioritises fairness, care and personal growth. A glance at our online presence proves we’re an organisation that fosters a healthy and vibrant work environment.

How is the current inflationary environment impacting your business? How do you expect things to unfold?

Recruitment and retention in an inflationary period is critical. Inflation affects salaries supplies and fuel – the pinch points in any business. We have an advantage in that 90 per cent of our revenue is Government-backed. However, it takes time to negotiate an increase in the rates in line with higher levels of inflation.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make?

With discovery, there is always a certain level of risk. Hence, we are often reminded of the uncertainties attached to entrepreneurship. A double fault is we don’t go far enough fast enough and, at the same time, overstretch.

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

Choose what you want to do. Research it. Focus on it. Start it. Build a team.

Lorraine Heskin, Gourmet Food Parlour

Lorraine Heskin is the founder and chief executive of Gourmet Food Parlour, which opened its first cafe in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 17 years ago with the aim to serve a range of quality, artisan dishes, using simple, locally-sourced ingredients while serving it in a fun, relaxed way.

The group has grown to six locations across Dublin, Galway and Meath, as well as a large catering and events business and an additional sister brand launched during the pandemic, Gourmet Gifts.

Its clients include the FAI, IRFU and, more recently, the Olympic Federation of Ireland. It is also the official nutritional partner with the Dublin GAA county board and Shamrock Rovers.

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

The lightbulb moment came when I was working in America, I absolutely fell in love with the customer service experience over there.

I was blessed to work and experience some of the best that the States had to offer, and I thought it would be amazing to apply this level of service to Irish food, offering locally-made dishes that would resonate with customers.

What was your ‘back to the wall’ moment and how did you overcome it?

There are many, but two that stand out include the recession and the pandemic. We weren’t long in business when the recession came at us in full force.

We had to adapt to survive, we expanded our business from a daytime cafe to an all-day offering, opening longer hours, diversifying our portfolio to include night-time offerings, increasing spend per head and focusing on our core business pillars.

During the pandemic we adapted to restrictions, diversified our offering to save jobs and focused on keeping our brand alive throughout a very difficult trading environment. It is incredible what resilience you find when facing times of immense challenge.

What moment/deal would you cite as the ‘game changer’ or turning point for the company?

Moving into the catering space was a real game changer. We had become established as a quality restaurant offering but catering wasn’t initially on the agenda. We had a host of customers in the corporate and sports industries.

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

Gourmet Food Parlour is an Irish business that operates in Ireland. We work across the entire island with catering, but our focus is and has always been to create community restaurants that people will return to for years.

What is your growth funding path?

Bank support and self-funding.

How will your market look in three years and where would you like your business to be?

In the next three years I can see customers wanting to see more sustainable programmes within restaurants and to showcase the farm-to-fork process within each menu design.

What are the big disruptive forces in your industry?

Probably big business and international chains. Some enter the market with an expectation to massively succeed but the Irish customer has a unique perspective and is very loyal, so gaining their trust isn’t as easy as some may think.

As an independent offering, Gourmet Food Parlour needs to compete with big business on a regular basis, but we focus on our ethos and quality, which works well for us.

Is AI impacting your business and industry?

Yes and no. Gourmet Food Parlour is customer-facing and that customer experience in restaurant will always trump any kind of technological advancements.

However, there have certainly been AI advancements with online customer booking tools, internal systems, social media, marketing tools and more that have and will continue to improve efficiency in the background.

What makes your company a good place to work? For example, diversity and inclusion, flexible working, supported learning, health promotion, CSR initiatives?

We recently introduced an employee assistance programme to support the mental health and wellbeing of all our employees. Our culture and wellbeing are of the utmost importance to us.

From a CSR perspective we are heavily involved in local and national sport, not only from a nutritional and catering perspective but also with regards to grassroots fundraising and support.

How is the current inflationary environment impacting your business?

Trading is challenging. The parameters fluctuate so often it is difficult to determine margin and assertively plan for the future. The hospitality business is fast paced, so you need to try to be 10 steps ahead at all times.