The Small Firms Association (SFA) is the national organisation exclusively representing the needs of small enterprises in Ireland. The SFA works with small firms directly, providing them with dedicated professional support and offering an unparalleled range of services to their members, including economic, commercial, employee relations and social affairs advice and assistance.

This is why permanent tsb are proud to support the SFA by sponsoring the National Small Business Awards and the “Innovator of the Year” category 2020. The awards, now in their 17^th year, represent the highest accolade for small business in the Republic of Ireland. The aim of the awards is to celebrate the achievements of small businesses in Ireland and to recognise the vital contribution that the small business community makes to the Irish economy.

The 2020 Awards attracted over 700 applications with 334 nominations made by permanent tsb. Of these, 14 permanent tsb nominees were selected as Finalists, Winners or Highly Commended.

The winner of our sponsored category, “Innovator of the Year 2020”, was Woodco Renewable Energy, a Tipperary based company which designs and manufactures a range of Biomass Boiler systems for homes, farms and other businesses. Declan Crosse, Technical Director at Woodco is photographed above receiving the Award in July from our own Eddie Kearney, Head of Retail Distribution and Sue O’Neill, previous chair of the SFA Council and MD of Shellcove, an Association Management Company. 

Equine MediRecord, a Kildare based company which provides a central platform for all equine related medical records, keeping records safe, compliant and up to date, were also Highly Commended in the “Innovator of the Year” category.

We look forward to continuing to partner with SFA Ireland and together we will have an exciting announcement to make in the coming weeks!