Cork County’s Business of the Year will be announced next month

THE overall Cork County Business of the Year Award will take place next month, with three companies vying for the prestigious title.

The award is the final stage of the West Cork Business & Tourism Awards where Keohane Seafoods were named Overall West Cork Business of the Year at a Gala Awards night at the Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa Hotel in November.

Keohane Seafoods will now go up against the equivalent winners in East and North Cork for the title of Cork County Business of the Year.

They are Castlemartyr Resort in East Cork and Health & Safety Publications Limited in North Cork.

The awards lunch will take place Friday 7th February in Vertigo, on the 17th floor of Cork County Hall.

Sports commentator and TV presenter Marty Morrissey is the host and MC for the event.

The Cork County Business & Tourism Awards are an initiative designed to celebrate and recognise excellence in business and tourism and were created by Cork County Council and The Southern Star in association with AIB.

Launched in June 2019 in West, East and North Cork, the Awards spanned 11 categories including Best New Business, Best Customer Service, Most Innovative/Unique Business and Best Tourism Experience.

There was also an award for Young Business Person of the Year, for those aged 18-30.

Most Innovative/Unique Business was the most hotly contested category in West Cork no doubt reflecting the creativity which exists in the region with Best Small to Medium Enterprise most popular in North Cork and Best New Business and Best Customer Service joint top category in East Cork.

In total Cork County Council received 324 entries from 240 different business and tourism organisations across the three regions, with almost half of these originating from West Cork.

From this a shortlist of 34 West Cork finalists were chosen, each of whom attended a ‘pitch night’ at AIB Bandon in October, where they had the opportunity to sell themselves and their businesses/organisations to the judges face to face, via a 3-minute pitch.

From this the 11 category winners were chosen, along with the overall winner with these announced at Inchydoney at a Gala Awards night at the end of November.

The ceremony and lunch February 7th is an invite-only event courtesy of Cork County Council, with leading figures from business, politics and tourism in attendance.

Sean Mahon, managing director of The Southern Star, said: ‘The West Cork Business & Tourism Awards really highlighted the number of hugely innovative and successful businesses and tourism organisations operating here in West Cork and Keohane Seafoods were very worthy overall winners.

We wish them every success in representing West Cork and potentially being crowned overall Cork County Business of the Year.’

For further information and a full list of winners in each of the three regions, visit: www.corkcountybusinessandtourismawards.ie.