Success for Tipperary Company at National Enterprise Awards

NUTSHED Limited, Promoters Evie & Eliza Ward, who are supported by Local Enterprise Office Tipperary, were winners at this year’s National Enterprise Awards. The awards, which took place at the Round Room in the Mansion House in Dublin on Thursday May 23^rd, were in their 24th year and run annually by the Local Enterprise Offices.

Tipperary duo Evie and Eliza Ward of Nutshed, makers of award-winning peanut butters, took home the South West Region Award on the night.

Based in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Nutshed led by sisters Evie & Eliza has grown their business from a humble market stall in 2014 to became Ireland’s first producer of award winning, single origin craft peanut butters, while introducing flavored peanut butter to the Irish market by creating an exciting and delicious range. Now available in 600+ shops around Ireland, in independent retailers, Dunnes Stores, Tesco and SuperValus . Their fanatical range has recently expanded to South Korea, where their peanut butters are gaining a loyal following from Korean customers through their listings in the super high-end Hyundai Department Stores, as well as the hugely popular online store Market Kurly.

The sisters have grown up with food in their genes following in the footsteps of their parents Peter & Mary Ward who have championed local food produce and fresh ingredients over the years from their store Country Choice based in Nenagh. Peter & Mary themselves were awarded this year a Lifetime Achievement Award from Food writer and Irish Food Writers Guild President, Georgina Campbell

Speaking after the awards, the sisters said, “We are absolutely thrilled with this award and delighted to represent LEO Tipperary in the final of such a key annual competition, we are privileged to be among the 31 top businesses from all around the Country! We hope our story will inspire other women to pursue their own Enterprise”.

Anthony Fitzgerald said “The National Enterprise Awards serve to highlight the very best businesses that the Local Enterprise Offices are working with across the country. The diversity of sectors and innovation shown again this year is outstanding and the winners will no doubt produce businesses destined for international success. These businesses have excelled in their areas and have the potential to follow in the footsteps of previous winners to become successful global companies. We would like to extend our congratulations to both Evie & Eliza on winning their award and we look forward to working with you into the future.”

Local Enterprise Office Tipperary have been represented in recent years by firms including Premier Utilities T/a TruePOS, Premier Fire Products Ltd, T/a Waxies, Pergamino T/a The Old Barracks Coffee Roasters, Clonmel Covers Ltd and Horizon Offsite Ltd.

The overall winner at the National Enterprise Awards was Dreamdev Technologies who are supported by Local Enterprise Office Kildare. DreamDev was set up by Eoin Barry and Douglas Augiar in 2019 with the aim of utilising online tools and software to enable faster digitalisation for companies. Their flagship product, ‘the dot-star enterprise’ software platform enables software engineering teams to create their own bespoke software programmes which deliver results with significantly reduced resourcing requirements.

Announcing the award winners at the Mansion House and after earlier launching the new Local Enterprise Office Policy Statement, Minister Burke said; “The National Enterprise Awards are the highlight of the small business and enterprise calendar. Year on year the diversity of businesses and the standard of companies that are coming through the process is getting stronger. We should not be surprised given the innovation and endurance that businesses have shown in recent years. We have some outstanding winners but the finalists on the whole have been excellent, and this is very much the start of their journey.

“The new Local Enterprise Office Policy Statement I announced today sets out the vital role that LEOs have in fostering entrepreneurship and helping small businesses thrive every day across the country. The Policy Statement charts a clear roadmap of how LEOs will align their work with the priorities of the White Paper on Enterprise and ensure that their high-calibre offering continues into the future. I pay tribute to the great work of the current and former staff of the LEOs who, over the last 10 years, have helped and guided small businesses in Ireland which are at the heart of every town, village and community and are vital to our economy.”

Several other companies won across a range of categories at the Awards, which were established by the Local Enterprise Offices to celebrate the impact and quality of small businesses across the country.