Eight SMEs have completed the six-month Thrive Project leadership programme,  an initiative developed by Enterprise Ireland and Coca-Cola, with DCU as academic partner.

The programme aims to help Irish food companies to build scale, and this year’s Thrive Project graduates are:

Brogan’s Bakery (Dublin)
Cahill’s Farm Cheese (Limerick)
The White Hag brewing company (Sligo)
Couverture desserts (Kildare)
Pow-Cow frozen yoghurt (Dublin)
Strong Roots frozen vegetables (Dublin)
Revive Active health supplements (Galway)
Walsh’s Bakehouse (Waterford).

The participants received advice from Coca-Cola experts, as well as coaching and financial planning assistance from Enterprise Ireland. The Thrive Project also involved a three-day bootcamp in Coca-Cola’s Atlanta HQ and a two-day workshop in London.

Petre Sandru, Ireland country manager for Coca-Cola, said that the Thrive Project is all about leadership in the food and drink industry. “We are delighted to be in a position to share our best practices and experience with these innovative Irish companies who all have the potential to become global brands,” he added.

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Orla Battersby, divisional manager in Enterprise Ireland’s food division, said that the Thrive Project allowed the state agency to share its expertise in business development and leadership capability with the participants.

Revive Active founder Daithí O’Connor described the Thrive Project as “a brilliant experience from start to finish”.

“I found the one-on-one coaching sessions to be particularly beneficial. I have relayed the expertise and insights I have gained over the last six months back to my team and we have already begun to incorporate these into our own brand development strategy,” O’Connor added.

The 2019 Thrive Project will commence in April with eight new companies participating.

Photo: Sam Dennigan of Strong Roots (left), Celine Hayes of Couverture and Niall Moloney of PowCow. (Pic: Naoise Culhane)