Three Ireland’s Grants for Small Businesses programme sees 10 small businesses receive a share of a €100,000 bursary. The bursary is made up of a mix of cash, advice, support and connectivity solutions from Three Ireland’s expert business advisers. Among the latest group of award winners are a family-owned ice cream business, a hurley manufacturing and sports equipment enterprise, and a high-end glamping experience.
The Fleming family have been dairy farmers in Muckross, Killarney, Co Kerry, for five generations. “We started selling ice cream in June 2019,” says John Fleming of the Muckross Creamery. “In 2021 we renovated an old cottage on the farm as a pop-up ice cream parlour to see if there was demand there. So far, so good. We supply a number of retail and food service customers as well. It’s a seasonal business. Everyone wants it at once and that can be a problem in the peak season.”
The Three grant is helping the company meet peak demand, he says. “It has been a great boost for us. We got €5,000 cash injection and the same again in services. We have earmarked €4,000 for a bigger ice cream making machine, which has just been delivered.”
The remainder will be directed towards reducing the environmental impact of the business. “We purchased two beehives and are looking at other issues as well. We want to take action to promote biodiversity and tackle climate change. The services have definitely been of use to us. We installed wifi in the shop to facilitate a card reader so we are now able to accept cashless payments. That’s been very good for the business. We also put in mobile hotspots to extend the signal coverage. We are able to answer calls wherever we are on the farm.”
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Janet Conneely runs the Connemara Glamping tourism business in Galway. “We are located in south Connemara near the Aran Islands ferry,” she says. “On a clear day you get beautiful views of Galway Bay and the Cliffs of Moher. We have four large safari tents with three bedrooms and proper beds with electric blankets for colder nights. You could call it posh camping. There was a firm called Too Posh to Pitch in the UK and it’s a bit like that. We are open from May to September and mainly attract German, American and some French guests.”
The Three grant has been welcome in a number of ways. “It was a massive, massive lift for us to be recognised in this way. It has been such a battle for us just to get started. This is the first real recognition we have received.”
The money was very welcome as well, she adds. “We are able to extend wifi to the tents. People expect that these days. We are also buying a wood-fired outdoor bathtub from a supplier in Scandinavia. We will carry out installation works in September at the end of the season.”
Aidan Morgan of AM Hurleys and Sports had been playing hurling since he was a child and started repairing hurleys for friends and neighbours in 2014 in a shed at the back of his house. “After that I started making hurleys. I was completely self-taught.”
He gave up his full-time coaching job with Monaghan GAA in 2018 to devote his time to caring for a newborn child during the day and building the business in the evenings. “Covid hit in March 2020, and we had no online presence. I decided to launch a website. I bought the back of a lorry and converted it into a shop here at the house. Online sales got going and I started selling other sports equipment in the shop. I started with GAA, then moved into rugby and soccer and diversified into other sports.”
His latest move is into team wear with 2018 All-Star and current Monaghan senior football goalkeeper Rory Beggan joining the business to help drive sales growth. “We are just about to launch our Ignite23 brand of sportswear,” he says. “The funding from Three has helped with that. It has also helped with the rent of our new premises in Silverstream, Co Monaghan.
“On the technology side Three couldn’t have been more helpful. I upgraded my phone and Three set me up with their virtual landline app on the phone. That means I can take calls to my landline on the mobile. I can also switch the landline to an answerphone out of hours if I want. That’s better for work-life balance. I used some of the €5,000 cash to upgrade the website. There is still some left over. I want to use it where it will most benefit the business.”