Emerald Aero Group shortlisted to represent Ireland at European Enterprise Promotion Awards in Slovenia in 2021

International Shows for 2020 and business development opportunities for member companies were top the agenda as plans for 2020 were put into action. Special mention and thanks to Victor Twohig who organised and hosted the event on behalf of the Engineering Cluster.

Emerald Aero Group who was successful in their application at a national level progressed to the European stages in July. The Irish Cluster was one of over 200 National EEPA entries who were submitted for consideration from 28 participating countries. The EEPA National Coordinators then selected 47 of these projects for the EEPA 2021 Jury to evaluate. The final shortlist of 16 projects has been announced and Emerald Aero Group will fly the flag for Ireland.

The decision came after 3-hour deliberations, during which jurors were trying to choose between some of the most inspiring examples of entrepreneurship and SME-friendly initiatives in Europe. The selected finalists who demonstrated innovation, creativity, and passion for supporting entrepreneurship will meet at the SME Assembly 2021 in Portorož, Slovenia, on 16th November in the final round of EEPA. The winners in each category will be announced during a special European Enterprise Promotion and Small and Mid-Caps Awards Ceremony.

Emerald Aero Group, who will represent Ireland in the category, “Supporting the internationalisation of business”, are a member led Irish Cluster of companies seeking to internationalise their businesses. Emerald Aero Group operate on the basis that “We are stronger together. This concept is derived from Irish tradition, taken from our deep heritage in supporting each other to overcome challenges. Strong and close relationships, built on trust, sharing of tools and capabilities and knowledge sharing between neighbours and friends was, and is at the very heart of the success of Meitheal (Gaelic for “communities coming together”), and it is that same tradition that makes Emerald Aero Group the success it is today”, says Gerry Reynolds founder and MD of Takumi Precision, and founding member of Emerald Aero Group. The Cluster market themselves collectively, by attending trade shows and engaging pathfinders, shared knowledge through combining resources under the Emerald umbrella. The category, supporting the internationalisation of business, recognises initiatives that encourage enterprises and particularly small and medium-sized businesses to benefit more from the opportunities offered by markets, both inside and outside the EU.

Theresa Mulvihill, Cluster Coordinator said “2021 was an extremely tough year globally, in every way for every person of every walk of life. Aerospace is a sector that has been particularly hard hit, the Members of Emerald Aero could well have pivoted and made a decision to focus on other markets, invest their time and money elsewhere. Their decision to remain focused, loyal and dedicated to each other as a group is testament to the value of clustering and the concept of “Strength in numbers”. The ambition of this group to internalise, scale and grow their businesses across global markets is inspiring. Each member of the group is a role model to other Irish firms in Ireland.

Emerald Aero Group are supported by Enterprise Ireland through the REDF fund. David Lucey, Senior Development Advisor, Engineering Markets, Enterprise Ireland said “Emerald Aero Group are an exemplary industry led cluster, which facilitates growing Irish companies with key sector expertise to join forces, form consortiums and share widespread industry knowledge in a bid to win greater contracts against contending larger companies across the aerospace sector. Enterprise Ireland supports this group to develop overseas market opportunities. The collaborative consortium approach strengthens their offering to the global market. “

Members of Emerald Aero Group are located across the Island of Ireland. The Emerald Aero Cluster member companies have genuine and strong relationships, while they compete locally, they scale together globally. Members have worked together collectively since 2014. The sharing of knowledge and combined digitisation system has been created based on the sharing of their best practices, all coming together as one. Emerald Aero Group members include; two companies located in Galway; Dawnlough and Byrne Mech, three companies in Shannon are Lenane Precision, Shannon Coil Springs and Shannon Precision Engineering. Takumi Precision are located in Limerick, with Future Plastics, Key Plastics, and Mann Engineering on the East coast. T&T Precision are located in Cork, and DPF in Carlow.

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards reward those who promote entrepreneurship and small business at the national, regional and local level. Initiatives from all EU countries, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Iceland and the United Kingdom can take part in the competition. Since 2006, over 4,000 projects have entered the awards and together they have supported the creation of well over 10,000 new companies.