County Tipperary Business Awards Black Tie Gala Dinner @ the 4✫Clonmel Park Hotel.
Our Main Sponsor and sponsor of Overall Business of the Year was ABP Foods.
Following on from the fantastic success of the 2017, the 2018 County Tipperary Business Awards were even more sucessful. We added two extra awards and it was a full house at 270 people.
The luminaries of Tipperary business were presented with awards in front of an audience of their peers. Chamber President, T.J. Kinsella said that the ceremony was a celebration of all that's great and good about Tipperary – a great place to live and a great place to do business.
Master of ceremonies was the very capable Fran Curry of Tipp FM. Tipp FM were our Main Media Partners.
In recognition of their local teams outstanding efforts in the area of CSR over the past 12 months in particular, MSD was honoured as the Best Overall Business of the Year. The giant of the pharma world took the top accolade at the second County Tipperary Business Awards in the Clonmel Park Hotel. It had earlier taken the Best CSR or Contribution to the Community award.
Our Innovation and Education partner, LIT Tipperary, sponsored the Presidential Award for
outstanding Achievement - the winner was Tipperary fashion designer Louise Kennedy.
Chamber President, TJ Kinsella, described Louise as the 'queen of Irish fashion'. The Thurles native has been at the top of the Irish and international fashion trade for thirty five years. She has designed for presidents and royalty, designed the Aer Lingus uniforms and has been recognised with a
special stamp by An Post.
She said she was absolutely thrilled to win the award and to be honoured by the Tipperary business community.“Wherever I go in the world, I am always Tipperary first”, she told the audience of over 250 at the gathering.
Our President congratulated all the winners and nominees and remarked that between them all gathered in the room that evening, they employed over five thousand people.
Frank McGrath, VP of the Chamber and Head of the awards subcommittee thanked our sponsors, the CEO and staff of the Chamber, and other Chambers and business organisations in County
Tipperary who supported our venture. The Clonmel Park Hotel were congratulated for a wonderful drinks reception, meal and hospitality - special thanks to Laura Jones, Sales & Marketing Manager!
The Chamber wish to recognise 3 of our colleagues on the Board who have given sterling service over the last number of years & for whom is this is the last Public Event before they hand over the baton at our AGM next week. Julian Smith, Ian Cooke and our esteemed President T.J. Kinsella
received a small gift as a token of our appreciation for their efforts over the years.
Frank thanked all of the nominees for taking the time to enter. Businesses of all shapes and sizes and from all parts of the county were recognized. Rural villages such as Borrisoleigh, Loughmore and Drangan as well our large towns Clonmel, Nenagh, Thurles, Tipperary etc. have all been
represented. It’s also great to see that Businesses who were runners up in various categories in 2017 were back in 2018 to win.
David Shanahan, Chamber CEO would like to thank John D. Kelly photography, Brendan Kerins of Premier Video, Frontline Audio Visual, John Quike for the award pieces and our post awards band: Super Soul Machine.
We will had a charity collection for South Tipperary and North Tipperary Hospice.
The message should be clear….we want to invite you to participate again in 2019 so please be sure to enter again next year!
Category winners were
{if you click on the winners name it will send you to their category page}:
✦ Best SME - sponsored by AIB Bank - WINNER - RYANS CLEANING {THURLES}
✦ Best Sports/Arts/Culture - sponsored by Bulmers - WINNER - SETANTA COLLEGE {THURLES}
✦ Best CSR - sponsored by Amneal - WINNER - MSD {Kilsheelan}
✦ Best Employer: Talent Development, Training & Wellness
- sponsored by County Tipperary Skillnet - WINNER - METIS IRELAND {CLONMEL}
✦ Best Start-Up - sponsored by LEO, Tipperary - WINNER - HORAN AUTOMATION {DRANGAN}
✦ Best Use of Social Media in Business - sponsored by Alby Pharma - WINNER - ACORN REGULATORY {CLONMEL}
✦ Best Large Business - sponsored by Bank of Ireland - WINNER - BOSTON SCIENTIFIC {CLONMEL}
✦ Best Family Business - sponsored by O’Gorman, Brannigan Purtill & Co. - WINNER - CANTWELL ENGINEERING {URLINGFORD}
✦ Best Tourism & Hospitality - sponsored by Showgrounds Shopping Centre, Clonmel - WINNER - THE COTTAGE LOUGHMORE
✦ Best Food and Agricultural - sponsored by MSD - WINNER - BLANCO NINO {CLONMEL}
✦ Best Services Provider - sponsored by Abbott - WINNER - EISHTEC {CLONMEL}
✦ Best In Retail - sponsored by Boston Scientific - WINNER - SHANAHAN’S CENTRA {BORRISOLEIGH}
✦ Best Social Enterprise Award- sponsored by Tipperary County Council - WINNER -
KNOCKANRAWLEY RESOURCE CENTRE {TIPPERARY TOWN}
