WEST LIMERICK COMPANY WINS MAJOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE AWARD

DesignPro Ltd. from Newcastle West was named overall winner at this year’s National Enterprise Awards in Dublin Castle, organised by the County and City Enterprise Boards.

The announcement was made by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr. Richard Bruton TD, at a black-tie awards ceremony last Thursday evening.

Set up by Paul Collins, a mechanical engineer, in a rented house in 2004, the Limerick County Enter-prise Board-supported business has doubled in size each year over the last five years and provides precision automation and machine-build services. Targeting the medical devices, pharmaceuticals, electronics and automotive markets, it provides complete turnkey solutions including problem analysis, design, prototyping, build and installation.

The company, which has a workforce of fourteen, recently expanded to a second production facility in Abbeyfeale, adding Oral-B, Tyco Electronics and Boston Scientific to its growing list of clients.

DesignPro Ltd has been grant-aided by Limerick County Enterprise Board, which nominated Collins for the competition. The acting CEO of Limerick County Enterprise Board, Mike Cantwell, was the first to congratulate the company, saying: “This is a huge achievement for any business, as the County and City Enterprise Boards support around 30,000 small businesses every year. As overall winners in this year’s National Enterprise Awards, the people of Limerick will be very proud of DesignPro’s success and we would like to pay tribute to Paul Collins and his hard-working team. By growing internationally, and doubling in size in each of the last five years, DesignPro, and other small businesses like them, are helping to lead Limerick’s economic recovery.”

Prizes included a cash prize of €5,000 for the overall winner and €1,000 for the three category winners, in addition to a specially commissioned trophy from Roscommon-based designer Kate Oram.