Cavan's enterprise award winners announced

The national finals take place this summer.

Ann Rudden, master chocolatier and founder of Aine’s Chocolates, has been announced as this year’s Overall Winner at the County Cavan Enterprise Awards.

The Stradone woman was crowned the 2022 winner at an event held at the Cavan Digital Hub on Friday.

Ann will now go on to represent the county’s Local Enterprise Office at the 22nd National Enterprise Awards at the Mansion House in Dublin on June 2.

Since setting up her company, Aine’s Chocolates, in 1999, Ann has grown her business on an international scale, recently securing a contract to supply Harrods in London with a bespoke range of chocolate bars.

She also supplies major supermarkets, including Dunnes Stores, Aldi, Lidl and SuperValu.

Plans for 2022 include the expansion of her production facilities in Stradone to accommodate the rapid growth of her business, integrating automation and digitisation to ensure competitiveness in her sector and support her ambitions to target new markets in the UK, Europe and Canada.

Ann Rudden was also awarded the Best Established Business Award for 2022 at Friday’s event.

In the national competition, Ann will now be competing against 30 other finalists from every local authority area for a share of the €35,000 winner’s prize fund. National judging gets underway in May.

Categories this year include ‘Best Export Business,’ ‘Best Start-Up’ and ‘Innovation,’ in addition to eight regional awards. There are also two new National Enterprise Awards this year with a “One to Watch” award and a “Sustainability / Green” award.

Other winners announced in Cavan town on Friday were Matt Fitzgerald and Garrett Rothwell of Arch I Modular Solutions Ltd who won the Best Start Up Business Award. Matt and Garrett established the business in October 2020, designing and manufacturing steel frame modular building solutions for the residential, healthcare and educational sector.

A new award, the Enterprise Innovation Award, gives special recognition to businesses who have demonstrated particular ambition and innovation to transform their business and to secure its future growth. The award went to Malanaphy Machinery Ltd based in West Cavan. Through the introduction of LEAN processes and digitalisation, they have succeeded in manufacturing a high standard of trailer products and solutions that compete with international competitors.

The Digital Innovation Award went to EDAC Environmental Compliance Ltd which was founded in late 2019 by Garreth Tackney. EDAC is based in Cavan Digital Hub and has developed a cloud based environmental management software (EMS) platform serving the food processing, manufacturing, utilities, and waste management sectors.

The One to Watch Award, which recognises businesses demonstrating great growth potential and scalability in the future was awarded to Vanilla Bean Patisserie Ltd. Established by Kristijan Kodric in January 2020, Kristijan has diversified and pivoted his business from focusing on producing artisan pastries and desserts for the hospitality sector to selling his products online to consumers and developing a unique range of lemon, lime and passion fruit curds for the retail sector. He is now supplying Aldi and hopes to start supplying Aldi UK with plans for further expansion of his production process in the year ahead.

County Cavan has had a strong record of success in the National Enterprise Award finals over recent years and have had three overall national winners, three national runners up and a national innovation winner at the last in person final in 2019.

Speaking at the awards, Marcella Rudden, Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office in Cavan acknowledged the achievements of all the finalists, who are LEO supported clients in the manufacturing and internationally tradable services sector and whose growth and success in recent years is remarkable considering the unprecedented challenges they have faced due to Brexit and the COVID 19 pandemic.