Mannok celebrates a hat-trick of prestigious awards

Mannok progresses from "phase of business stabilisation" and re-branding to focusing on “long-term sustainability”.

Local manufacturing firm Mannok has celebrated a hat-trick of prestigious awards.

The business’ winning streak began on Thursday, September 28 at the Lean Business Ireland Awards where the company won the ‘Off to the Best Start’ category, following the launch of its Operational Excellence strategy earlier this year.

The company’s success continued, on the other side of the Irish Sea, as Mannok was honoured as ‘Supplier of the Year’ for the independent merchant’s industry at the inaugural IBC Buying Group Gala Ball and Awards held in Northamptonshire.

Finally, to top off an already successful evening, Mannok was announced as one of Ireland’s ‘Best Managed Companies’ due to its superior business performance.

Ireland’s Best Managed Companies 2022

Mannok was named one of Ireland’s Best Managed Companies for the second year running at this year’s Ireland’s Best Managed Companies Awards.

The awards programme, led by Deloitte in association with Bank of Ireland, promotes and recognises excellence in Irish/Northern Irish owned and managed companies. It is the only awards scheme on the island of Ireland that considers a business’ performance from every perspective.

Entrants to the programme compete for the designation in a rigorous process that evaluates the calibre of their management abilities and practices in addition to the strategy, capability, innovation, culture and financial performance of their companies.

Dara O’Reilly, Mannok’s Chief Financial Officer attended the awards ceremony at The Convention Centre Dublin. “We are very proud to be recognised as one of Ireland’s Best Managed Companies for the second year running, particularly given the unprecedented challenges of energy price hikes and cost inflation in the last year. Our resilience to such challenges and our continued business performance is down to our team of over 800 employees, whom we are extremely grateful to for all their commitment, hard work and innovative spirit.”

Mr O’Reilly explaind how Mannok has “progressed from a phase of business stabilisation” and a re-positioning of their brand to now focusing on the “long-term sustainability” of the organisation, as well as the fulfilment of their “purpose, mission, vision and values”.

Along with launching their ambitious sustainability and Operational Excellence strategies, Mannok has scaled up their educational partnerships, invested in state-of-the-art manufacturing technology, and made significant progress in our pioneering decarbonisation programme.

“It is this commitment to growing a sustainable business that has helped us achieve this recognition along with other top performing companies in Ireland,” he said.

At the 14th annual awards programme, nine new businesses were awarded Ireland’s ‘Best Managed Companies’ accolade. Deloitte also recognised 136 indigenous companies, representing 25 of the 32 counties across the island of Ireland.

Lean Business Ireland Awards

Mannok won the ‘Off to the Best Start’ category at the annual Lean Business Ireland Awards 2022, an awards programme, supported by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, as the company with the most progress made towards organisational efficiency.

It follows the launch of Mannok’s Leading Excellence Programme, a transferable framework based on four core pillars of Lean, Sustainability, Skills and Development and Continuous Improvement to achieve best in class standards across the company’s entire operations.

Operational Excellence Manager, Conor Baxter, who designed the strategy, is leading its embedment in every area of the business.

“We currently have eight areas of the business in the planning phase, two in implementation and two in continuous improvement. We have already made significant improvements to business efficiency, and we are on track to achieving Best in Class operational standards by 2027.”

As the Lean Business Ireland Awards event continued, it was not long before Conor was back on stage at Croke Park to collect another award. Conor was crowned ‘Lean Champion of the Year’ for his critical role in Mannok’s journey to sustain a Lean and continuous improvement culture.

Congratulating Conor, Kevin Lunney, Mannok’s Chief Operations Officer said: “Efficiencies have improved significantly in every area of our business that he has started to look at, but it’s not just about efficiency. We can see it in the people; in the operators who come across as being more empowered in their work. And it’s not something we would have put emphasis on before because we didn’t understand the power of engagement, but he’s brought that to bear.”

IBC Buying Group Gala Ball and Awards

Mannok’s third award on Thursday, September 29, as ‘Supplier of the Year’, was announced at the inaugural IBC Buying Group Gala Ball and Awards, held in the prestigious Silverstone Race Circuit in Northamptonshire.

The awards celebrated the most innovative and successful partnerships between IBC members and suppliers over the past year.

A manufacturer of diverse, high quality building products, Mannok, has been working with the UK’s leading buying group for independent builders’ merchants, IBC, for a number of years with the company’s National Key Account Manager, Ryan Tabb, being the key point of contact for the group’s members.

At the buying group’s Gala Ball and Awards, Mannok was awarded ‘Supplier of the Year’ for its innovation, effective communication and customer service with both IBC members and the IBC team.

GB Sales and Marketing Director, Lee Gillman said in challenging times, Mannok’s Key Account Manager, Sales and Dispatch teams have worked very closely with IBC and its members to mitigate risk and ensure transparency through strong forward planning, collaboration and open communications.

“I would like to congratulate everyone in the Mannok team and our Key Account Manager, Ryan Tabb, for their excellent service, being flexible in their approach, supporting IBC and its members in every way possible and helping us have such a strong reputation in the builders merchant industry.”