Employment opportunities rise from business competition

NTREPRENEURS from Clonberne, Oranmore and Tuam have become the iEnaugural winners of the Take Action business initiative based at Beechtree Enterprise Centre.
Start-up companies were offered the chance to win financial backing for their enterprise, as well as the use of a serviced unit at the centre for a year, free of charge in the competition that was launched last November.
The Action Tuam initiative was worth a total of €25,000 to the three entrepreneurs and six students who were awarded funding this week.
The judging panel comprising Breda Fox, CEO of Galway County and City Enterprise Board; Ann Finn, Enterprise Ireland; John Byrne, managing director of CPS Tuam and John Fahy, managing director of Eventus, determined the winners, which included the third-level students, all from GMIT. With two main prizes on offer, the first went to Loftease, a company formed by Philip Gunning, Peter Morrow and Sean Canney, which manufactures and exports its patented electric folding attic stairs. The company won the use of a 3,000 square foot unit at the enterprise centre, along with €5,000 in cash.