Áine Kennedy, the founder of The Smooth Company, was chosen as emerging entrepreneur at the annual EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) awards on Thursday evening in the Powerscourt Hotel in Enniskerry..
“I definitely didn’t have a speech ready,” Ms Kennedy admitted upon receiving the award.
The Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year thanked her parents for letting her take over their home with stock for the Smooth Company, her friends and gave a special shoutout to her grandfather Billy.
She said it was the “biggest thing” to get onto the EY Entrepreneur of the Year programme, describing it as “surreal”.
RM Block
The company was formed in 2022 based out of its founder’s attic. Ms Kennedy had spent eight years working in the beauty industry, which inspired her first product, the Smooth Stick – a “hair-taming” wand that controls stray hairs without leaving hair hard or making it greasy.
The announcement was made at the annual EOY awards ceremony at the Powerscourt Hotel in Co Wicklow.
The business has amassed more than 150 million organic TikTok views, has customers in about 70 countries and has featured in Vogue and Elle magazines.
Among others, its product range is sold in Brown Thomas, Arnotts, 72 Peter Mark salons, and on 432 l Aer Lingus routes.
Ms Kennedy previously told The Irish Times that the company’s growth has “scaled through organic online growth, using social media and a unique content strategy to drive brand awareness and online sales direct to our own website”.
The company generated half of its sales overseas. The US and UK are significant exports markets for the business.
“We have huge plans for international expansion,” Ms Kennedy said, with its products being produced in Ireland, China, Korea, and other Asian countries, the diversification an effort to mitigate supply chain risks.
This year, Smooth Company became the first Irish cosmetics line to be stocked in the Netherlands at De Bijenkorf, the high-end department store chain owned by Brown Thomas Arnotts parent Selfridges.
Ms Kennedy said her products are already one of the bestselling brands in the Brown Thomas beauty section.
The other finalists in the emerging category of this year’s awards were: Alan Doyle of Aerlytix; Eoin Cluskey of Bread41; Eddie Dillon of CreditLogic; Laura Dowling of fabÜ; Caitriona Ryan & Nicola Ralph of Institute of Dermatologists; Liam Dunne of Klearcom; and Aidan & Hilary O’Shea of Otonomee.
