Southside award winning local companies make national final

TWO Southside business owners have been selected to represent the Dublin Region at the inaugural ILDN National Enterprise Awards in September 2016.

Shane Bonner of Newmarket Kitchens and Mari Donelan of Dan & Monstro both came through the Dublin Regional Final last month where they received a trophy and cheque for €1,000.

The winning duo are both Southside Partnership clients and have benefitted from Back to Work Enterprise Allowances.

Newmarket Kitchen is a food incubator and kitchen facility for Irish food producers, founded by Shane in April 2015 when he identified a shortage of facilities for food businesses.

The company provides space for food producers to prepare, cook and distribute their products and aims to further expand its premises, offering a range of consulting services to users and developing a food distribution service. 

Shane says he’s grateful for the benefits that the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme gave to his business.

“Without the scheme I don’t think I would have been in a financial position to take such a risk and set up in business,” he said.

Southside Partnership’s second winner, Mari Donelan, created her business from a dream inspired by her own family – to create, produce and sell fresh pasta sauces for children.

In May 2014, her Dan & Monstro range was born. Starting with placing one type of sauce in a few local shops, Mari has added a curry sauce to her range and Dan & Monstro is now available in 14 Supervalu outlets.

By the end of this year her products will be available in all 42 Dublin Supervalu stores, with an expanding product range and target market also in Mari’s future plans.

Marie expressed delight at winning her award and explained how the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance had helped greatly when launching her products into the supermarkets.

“I would have struggled immensely to purchase my ingredients without the support,” she said.

Cormac Shaw, CEO of Southside Partnership, congratulated Shane and Marie on their success.

“We are very proud to see such strong contenders going forward to the National Awards,” he added.

Enterprise & Employment Programme Manager, Finn McGuirk, stressed how great it was that two local companies had taken awards considering the extremely high standard of the Dublin Regional finalists.

Southside Partnership DLR has supported over 1,300 individuals to move from unemployment to self-employment, including Shane and Mari.

The inaugural ILDN National Enterprise Awards will take place on September 15.