A company set up by a former Royal Marine has won the top prize in a major cross-Border business award scheme set up by the Greek-Cypriot founder of Easyyet, Stelios Haji-Ioannou in partnership with Co-Operation Ireland.
Begun in Belfast in 2019, the juice and healthy food store, Juice Jar, set up by Sam Shephard and his wife Victoria, already has five branches in Northern Ireland, one in Bristol and two in Dublin.
The top prize of €150,000 in the North–South Business Cooperation Awards won by Shephard’s company was presented at a ceremony hosted by the billionaire in Castle Leslie in Co. Monaghan on Thursday.
The scheme follows the same model as other awards funded by Stelios that are long established in Cyprus, where Greek/Cypriot and Turkish/Cypriot entrepreneurs are honoured if they build business relations with people in the other part of the island.
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“The idea is that if they do business together, they’re more likely to be friends, their employees are more likely to be friends, their suppliers are more likely to be friends and less likely to go to war. They’re less likely to fight,” he said.
“That’s how you create lasting peace and economic prosperity. And we should never take lasting peace for granted. In Cyprus, there hasn’t been actual war for 51 years now, but you only have to travel 150 miles to the east of Cyprus to see how we can go wrong.
“I think we we should always work on lasting peace and economic prosperity. And the two are linked,” said the billionaire, who is married to a Kerry woman, Orla Murphy.
The decision to set up an awards scheme on the island of Ireland for businesses who are successfully co-operating with partners in the other jurisdiction emerged after Stelios met former Irish ambassador, Dan Mulhall.
In addition to the gold award, two silver awards worth €100,000 each were awarded to a partnership between the Galway-based Grá Chocolates, who make hand-painted, small-batch luxury chocolates, and Needi, which supplies corporate gifts.
The second silver award went to Acel Energy, a renewable energy company, set up by Barry Sherry from Monaghan and Declan McDonald from Fermanagh, that is serving customers across the island.
The bronze awards worth €25,000 each went to: OvaScan Fertility Ultrasound & New Beginnings Scan; industrial hygiene company Arcus Cleaning Systems; and Limerick-based Cotter Agritech, which is supplying IT solutions to farmers across the island.
Subterranean Software and Good Friday Robotics, who are “using drones to clean drains” and Park Life, which supplies pet treats were honoured, too.
The final winner was Súil Pharma & Medinect Ophtho, a cross-Border medtech partnership.
Mr Mulhall, who was deeply involved in the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement as a diplomat, said the awards highlighted the “wonderful” entrepreneurs now operating on both sides of the Border.
“It is a huge contrast from the way that Northern Ireland was, and the way that the Border counties were so badly affected by The Troubles. To see all this unbridled activity going on, to see companies rewarded today is a boost for the morale,” he said.
Mr Shephard told The Irish Times that recognition by the philanthropist billionaire was “hugely significant” for a small company in growth mode.
He had been in two minds about entering the competition when told about it by his father. “You look around you, and you assume everyone’s doing better than you. And business is hard,” he said.
