The eight entrepreneurs nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
Nominee: Sean Coyle
The Keystone Group was founded in 1989 on a business idea developed by managing director Sean Coyle and supported by the shareholders of a large mid-Ulster based construction company.
In 2004 group turnover was £25 million. It employs 260 people with wages forecast of £6 million.
Products
The Keystone Group is the leading manufacturer of steel lintels in Ireland and Britain, and the only indigenous manufacturer of roof windows.
Customers
Keystone trades with the leading merchant groups and housebuilders in Ireland and Britain.
Keystone has 35 per cent of the steel lintel market.
Achievements
Keystone has won numerous business awards including the Head Start award for new businesses and the Gallagher Award for a new company.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly innovative?
The Keystone Group recognises the value of maintaining a proactive approach to R&D. We have introduced many innovative product enhancements to steel lintels and roof windows.
Keystone Group has successfully patented many of these initiatives. Keystone quickly grew to dominate the British and Irish steel lintel business.
How did your initial phase of market expansion occur?
Keystone initially targeted local customers and only extended its target market as it became competent in terms of quality and service within each market region. "Real service" at Keystone means "go through the wall" to ensure your customer is satisfied!
What are the toughest issues you face as you continue to grow the business?
The most difficult aspect of growing any business is getting the right people. Keystone has created a family atmosphere for their 260 employees.
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
I was supported by two local businessmen on whom I was able to rely for sound business advice. On a wider front, companies like Kingspan and Quinn Group inspired me.
Nominee: Frankie Whelehan
Founded in June 1998, headquartered in Cork with an office in Dublin, Choice Hotels Ireland employs a total of 1,393 persons, 968 full time and 425 part time positions.
Products
Choice Hotels is the hotel operating company for the Choice Hotels range of brands in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The company operates the four star Clarion Hotel Group, three star Quality Hotel Group and budget Comfort Inn Group.
Customers
Irish Clarion Hotel Group: 53 per cent Irish; 7 per cent American; 21 per cent UK; 19 per cent other.
Irish Quality Hotel Group: 70 per cent Irish; 6 per cent American; 15 per cent UK; 9 per cent other
Irish Comfort Inn Group: 42 per cent Irish; 10 per cent American; 28 per cent UK; 20 per cent other
Achievement:
Choice Hotels Ireland is the second largest hotel group in Ireland and won the International Clarion of the Year Award for the Clarion Hotel IFSC in 2005.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative and innovative?
The most significant changes we have made have been separating the operational company from the freehold ownership of each hotel. Over a period of seven years we became the second largest hotel group in Ireland.
What are the toughest issues you face as you continue to grow the business?
The biggest obstacle I continually face as we expand is our balance sheet.
As an operational company our balance sheet will show healthy operational margins, however, there are no hotel freeholds to anchor off.
How do you recharge your batteries?
I am married to Josephine, who also trained in Hotel Management. We have three little girls and I keep weekends as family time.
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
My dad, Paddy. We owned a pub, Farm, Betting Office and Grocery in Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath.
The ability to identify trends and his sense of value integrity/loyalty/financial will always set him apart for me.
Nominee: Paddy Callaghan
Founded in 1985 in a garage in Co Meath, Nature's Best is a flagship within the chilled convenience food sector.
Since 1996, the company has been operating from 15,000 sq foot premises in Drogheda and employs 220 people.
Products
Nature's Best supplies around 300 different products made to order each day. The company uses the latest technology to bring chilled convenience food to the market shelf. It provides healthier, wholesome, safe and convenient options.
Customers
Nature's Best supplies the major retail supermarket chains. The company's two key customers are Tesco and Dunnes Stores.
Achievement:
A reputation for being innovative, market-led and customer driven. The initial beansprout idea has developed into a world-class enterprise that employs 220 people in a state of the art factory.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative and innovative?
Nature's Best responds to evolving consumer demands and expectations. These responses include the development of pioneering technology in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the washing process, the development of a probiotic coleslaw that enhances the digestive system's functioning.
What are the toughest issues you face as you continue to grow the business?
Maintaining company identity through our branded product while catering to our main customers insistence for "own label" is the biggest challenge of all.
How would you define the culture within your organisation?
The operational environment is multi-cultural and labour intensive. We have helped employees adapt to the local culture and environment through training and education while encouraging a wider acceptance of diverse cultures within the company.
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
Early learning is deep learning. My role models are my parents who provided me with love, care and great education opportunities and support throughout my life.
Nominee: William Wright
The Wrightbus Group is a privately-owned bus body builder, based in Ballymena, Co Antrim. William Wright was one of the original founders of the company in 1946. He was key to the company's change in strategic direction, from a Northern Ireland-focused commercial body builder into one of Britain's leading bus manufacturers.
The group employs about 790 people, and had a turnover last year of nearly £78.8 million.
Products
Wrightbus built over 700 bus bodies in 2004. The company offers a range of models, from nine metres to 18 metres, on Volvo, Scania and VDL bus chassis customers
Key customers include Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus, First Group, Blazefield, Arriva, Translink, National Express and Go Ahead.
The company is producing knocked down kits under licence for Optima Bus in Kansas and has also supplied over 100 LHD vehicles for Arriva in the Netherlands and over 125 12-metre double--deck buses for the world's biggest bus operator, Kowloon Motor Bus Company in Hong Kong.
Achievement
It is the largest supplier of buses in Britain, holding an 85 per cent share of the 12-metre single deck market and a 30 per cent share of the double deck market.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative or innovative?
"Our advanced technology and design contributes extensively in our ability to create innovative features to meet changing customer requirements.
This is also key in our endeavours to stay ahead in new product ideas/design."
How did your initial phase of market expansion occur?
We were the first bodybuilder in the UK to identify low floor vehicles as a potential market, to facilitate access for people with physical disabilities and also parents with baby pushchairs.
It is now the norm industry wide.
What are the toughest issues you face?
We work closely with each of our suppliers and are continually striving to find the best products to make the best buses.
Another constraint we find currently is the availability of the necessary skills required on our production line.
Nominee: Owen O'Callaghan
Owen O'Callaghan Properties (OCP) was established in 1969 in Cork It is one of Ireland's most successful property development concerns with commercial, retail and residential projects in Ireland and the UK. The company has €1.5 million of commercial, residential and retail work in progress or in planning in Cork, Dublin and London.
Product
O'Callaghan Properties specialises in town centre development. Major urban projects are predicated on a holistic approach to development which demands full integration of all elements including public transport. Examples of this can be found in Mahon Point in Cork
Customers
They include Debenhams, Tesco, Principles, FCUK, B&Q, Marks & Spencer, Boots, Dixons in the UK. In Ireland, Pamela Scott, River Island, Roches Stores, Atlantic Homecare, Dunnes Stores, Superquinn. In Spain, Zara and Bershka and in South Africa, Ster Century, Spur Steakhouse.
Achievement
Mahon Point in Cork is the largest commercial development outside of Dublin and currently employs 2,200 people, expected to increase to 6,000 when finished.
How did your initial phase of market expansion occur?
Paradoxically, OCP expanded during one of the worst economic recessions in recent history. In the early 1980s, the company was exclusively involved in house building activity and employed 250 directly or indirectly. In an effort to sustain its own construction activity and to maintain jobs in the process, the company evolved to become a development company, initiating its own retail and commercial projects.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative or innovative?
The company has adopted an innovative approach to the "community dividend" from the projects it undertakes. The company believes that all developments must have such a dividend, particularly when development occurs in areas of social and economic disadvantage.
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
I am hugely impressed by Dermot Desmond .
Nominee: Michael Carey
The Group was formed in 2004 as a result of a series of deals, including the acquisition of the former Nestle Ireland manufacturing business in 2002, (Fruitfield Foods) and the Jacob's Biscuit business from Group Danone in 2004. It is headquartered in Tallaght, Co Dublin and employs over 500 people.
Products
JFFG is a collection of great Irish food brands, some dating back to the mid-1800's. Brands include Chef, Fruitfield, Old Time Irish, Silvermints, Jacob's Kimberley, Mikado and Fig Rolls,
Customers
Irish food retailers and wholesalers in Ireland account for around 90 per cent of total sales. An expanding part of the business is export retailers and agents in the UK, mainland Europe, USA and Canada.
Achievement
The successful integration of the businesses into a single well resourced professional organisation.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative and innovative?
We need to innovate to grow. The new management approach has resulted in the establishment of a robust innovation process which has dramatically increased the rate and pace of new product development. We need to apply the highest standards to everything we do.
What are the toughest issues you face as you continue to grow the business?
The most significant issues facing this business, as we continue to grow are achieving a competitive cost base, shifting the multinational company culture to a faster pace, keeping close to the consumer andbuilding a highly motivated and driven senior management team.
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
My approach to business has been influenced by the highly capable colleagues and bosses at the large food groups in which I have worked over the past 20 years. Two other individuals who also come to mind are my father (who owned a small shop in Cabra, Dublin) for his honesty and hard work, and Jack Welch of GE, who had a unique focus on achievement.
Nominee: William Doyle
The Newbridge Cutlery Company was founded in 1934 and is the oldest integrated manufacturing facility in Europe. It was acquired as an ailing company in 1973 by Dominic Doyle who implemented a programme of rationalisation which ensured its survival for the next decade. In 1991 his son William succeeded him. Newbridge Silverware now employs 95 people at its headquarters in Newbridge.
Product
Over seven years, William Doyle has pioneered the launch of five different brand extensions in to the marketplace including jewellery, gifts, kitchenware, Paul Costelloe and Newbridge Home. The entire Newbridge collection comes with high quality packaging.
Customers
The company has 500 retail members and is now stocked in all reputable gift shops, department and jewellery stores in the Republic and Northern Ireland. The brand has also established an international appeal and the company has secured 100 outlets in the UK in stores such as John Lewis and House of Fraser.
Achievement
In the past seven years sales have increased from €1 million to €19 million.
The success has been recognised by numerous business awards and celebrity endorsements.
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative and innovative?
We believe in remaining at the cutting edge of trends and design. We have created a signature style which the consumer recognises as Newbridge Silverware. Our ultimate objective is to create an aspirational image around our brand and we use Celebrity Endorsements such as Samantha Mumba to create this.
We are also associated with events like Miss Ireland and the Rose of Tralee.
How did your initial phase of market expansion occur?
By late 1994 retailers no longer wished to stock our product range and we were on the verge of collapse. We showcased a new range of Jewellery at our annual trade show in Dublin in 1995 and retailer reaction was phenomenal.
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
For many years I have been inspired by Sir Anthony O'Reilly.
Nominees: Liam LaHart and Oliver Hughes
Cousins Oliver Hughes and Liam LaHart founded the Porterhouse Brewing Company in 1989, when they purchased a premises on the seafront in Bray, Co Wicklow. The company has become home for a celebrated concept, with six bars citywide and one in London, a nightclub, a hotel and an award-winning brewery, which supplies the Porterhouse outlets and niche bars in Europe. The company employs 250 staff.
Product
The company brews and supplies 10 quality beers under its own brand. This year it began supplying "Temple Brau" to pubs in Temple Bar exclusively. Each of the firm's premises has a unique style.
Customer
The Porterhouse company ethos is that the customer is king.
Achievement
Originally Oliver and Liam set up a small microbrewery, Harty's Brewery, in an industrial unit in Blessington, Co Wicklow, in 1982, and traded for three years , supplying to pubs in the area.
Their company now has a turnover of €21.8 million and is expected to make a profit of more than €3 million this year .
What aspects of your operation do you regard as being particularly creative or innovative?
We have tried to create an unorthodox environment that stimulates out-of-the box thinking for our team leaders/managers who meet monthly to refine their thoughts on embellishing the Porterhouse concept,
Have you a role model who has influenced your approach to business?
Oliver Hughes: my mother. Liam LeHart: my parents
