KORE Insulation in Cavan has been selected as the overall winner of the SFA National Small Business Awards 2020.

The awards ceremony was due to take place in the RDS Concert Hall last night (March 12) but was cancelled due to the coronavirus scare.

KORE Insulation was founded in 1997 by Tommy Brady, Helen Brady and Jimmy Macken. It’s now run by managing director Noel Brady (pictured), along with Caroline Ashe and Pauric Kavanagh.

The venture started off in a 60ft x 190ft factory in Kilnaleck, Co. Cavan and has grown to a 45,000 square feet facility.

The first product manufactured was Expanded Polystyrene boards, used for external insulation, floor insulation and roof insulation. Insulated Concrete Formwork was added to the product line in 2006, followed by Cavity Wall Insulation.

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The company has benefited from various state-sponsored home retrofit schemes and in 2016 KORE became the first company in Ireland to be certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015. KORE also added ISO 18001:2007.

Operating company Airpacks Ltd, with 40 people on the payroll, booked a net profit of €964,000 in the year to April 2018, according to company filings. Trade debtors expanded in 2017/18 from €1.3m to €1.9m and net worth at period end was €4.2m, including €983,000 balance sheet cash.

SFA chair Graham Byrne commented: “KORE Insulation is a wonderful example of a family business delivering continuous growth through manufacturing sustainable products for the low carbon transition currently underway across Ireland and Europe.”

CATEGORY WINNERS

Manufacturing: KORE Insulation (Co. Cavan)

Food and Drink: The Tipperary Cheese Company (Co. Tipperary)

Services: Riverside Spa (Co. Cavan)

Outstanding Small Business: Gill Opticians (Dublin)

Innovator: Woodco Renewable Energy (Co. Tipperary)

Exporter: Smarter Surfaces (Dublin)

Sustainability: Vivid Edge (Dublin)

Workplace Wellbeing: AVCOM (Dublin).

Emerging New Business Awards were presented to Viztronics Smart Solutions (Co. Meath), BuildTech (Dublin), Soothing Solutions (Co. Meath), The Salt Rooms (Dublin) and Vanguard HSI (Dublin).

Entrants for this category are under two years in business and the winners were identified by the judging panel as companies that will grow into successful organisations.

The category winners were presented with a trophy and free membership of the Small Firms Association for one year.  The overall winner also received a bursary of €5,000 to present to a charity of their choice, funded by Megazyme International.