THE FOUNDERS of theatre company Theatre Lovett have been named this year’s winners of the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards.

Louis Lovett and Muireann Ahern were awarded €10,000 in cash and €100,000 worth of mentoring and consultancy services at an awards ceremony at the offices of Mason Hayes and Curran yesterday.

Presenting the award, Harmonia chief executive Norah Casey praised the founders’ entrepreneurial and innovative spirit “which sets them apart from their peers”.

Theatre Lovett offers a unique kind of drama aimed at family and young audiences. A highly interactive art-form, it has a strong emphasis on the theatre of play.

Theatre Lovett's show The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly, co-produced with the Ark, was a commercial success nationally last year and has recently returned from a showcase in Texas.

The company is currently developing a body of new work for the international theatre circuit.

The David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards scheme was established in 2003 in memory of David Manley, a former president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, who was renowned for his encouragement and mentoring of small firms.

This year’s runners-ups were Lisa Domican, founder of GraceApp, an app which helps people with communication difficulties, including autism, communicate, and Safefood 360, a software product founded by George Howlett and Philip Gillen, which enables food-processing plants to record and manage all aspects of the food safety system.

Now in its ninth year, previous winners of the David Manley awards include Fred Hanna, founder of Swiftext, pharmaceutical company EirGen Pharma, and bicycle company Rothar.

Media consultant and journalist Tom McEnaney was awarded the third David Manley Media Award.