After suffering a life-changing injury, vegetable farmer Dick Weldon turned his problem into an opportunity which has turned out to be very successful.
Farming is recognised as one of Ireland’s most dangerous occupations, linked no doubt to the challenges of weather, shortage of labour and mechanisation. In November 2011 vegetable farmer, Dick Weldon experienced a life-changing event on his farm in Co. Meath. While carrying out a maintenance job on his purpose-built vegetable harvester; a spanner slipped and hit a sensor, switching on the machine, resulting in the loss of use of his arm – and a premature end to his farming career.
Turning a problem into an opportunity has been the hallmark of many start-up businesses. This is a story of resilience, about a man using his creative talents to manufacture a rehabilitation tool called proFITSTICK. A tool developed to help himself and others, deal with the suffering from injury and pain.
Innovation experience
In 1992 we took over the farm from my father. We started with a 40 acre vegetable farm and by 2013, we finished up farming on 450 acres, growing 100 acres of parsnips and 50 acres of brassica’s every year. As a grower, making it easier to harvest parsnips on wet ground was a problem that needed to be solved. The inspiration for a solution arose, from a national school trip to the midlands, back some 50 years ago. The tour was to a Bord na Mona (BNM) plant, where large tractors on tracks, were able to travel with ease across bogs, extracting and milling peat. Over the years that image stayed with me and it sparked the question as to ‘why not build something on tracks that could help lift produce out of the ground?’
In 1998 there were four main parsnip producers in Ireland, all with a similar

Waterford Distillery is a single malt whiskey distillery located in Waterford City. Here CEO, Mark Reynier provides an update on progress and of his ambition to create the most profound single malt whisky that has ever been seen.
What makes Waterford Distillery unique?
We utilise leading-edge machinery and equipment that you would normally never find in a distillery. As an example, we have a ‘mash filter’ used primarily in brewing for efficiency purposes but for us it acts as a ‘terroir-extractor’, allowing us to input the individual farm-grown barley that we put into the distillery. We also source our barley from over forty different farms, keeping the barley from each farm separate from field, to farm, to barrel, to bottle. This means we can build up a library of component mini-Waterford Whiskey that we can then play with in creative ways to create the most profound single malt whisky that has ever been seen.
What attracted you to the world of distilling?
What attracted me was an opportunity to make a difference in an industry that I believed was massively consolidated and industrial; and had lost the very essence of what it was originally all about – which was growing barley locally with individuality of flavour, associated with distilling on a local basis.
“We utilise leading-edge machinery and equipment that you would normally never find in a distillery.”
What were the challenges into converting a state-of-the-art brewery into a distillery?
Having to convert and transform a cutting-edge brewery into a working distillery was the foremost challenge that we encountered. Fortunately, our site manager Paul McCusker had previously been employed here and had also worked on dismantling the original site, so it made perfect sense that he could help in the re-equipment of the site.
The next step was getting back the guys who used to work here

From starting out doing the milk rounds, Noel Barcoe has since set up his own award winning milk and dairy company. Here he recounts his journey, along with his passion for all things milk.         
In 2015, following a decision to move away from mass-market milk, veteran milk distributor, Noel Barcoe along with the help of family and friends, established the Village Dairy, a Carlow-based micro-dairy, sourcing and processing milk from twelve hand-picked dairy farms. His drive and ambition has been to ‘make milk matter’ and to supply his now award-winning milk into local shops, restaurants, hotels and more recently to some of Ireland’s leading baristas.
Background
Working in the milk and dairy industry was always something that I really enjoyed. In late 80’s I left school and started working on a milk round. In 1990 I started my own milk round and began distributing milk and dairy products on behalf of Avonmore. The business grew and then in 1999, along with my business partners, we decided to set up a business called Dairyland Cuisine. We were able to sell milk and dairy products under our own brand, which we then supplied to restaurants, shops and hotels – basically to anybody that needed milk. We sourced our branded milk products from dairy coops such as Donegal Creameries, Lakelands and Dairygold. Unfortunately, when the recession hit in 2008, trade was severely affected and the impact meant having to reinvent ourselves and our business. This all coincided around the time of the pork scare, when consumers were becoming more aware about where their food was coming from and what the product had to offer, from a taste and quality perspective.
It had always been at the back of my mind to set up a micro-dairy and source milk directly from local dairy farmers. Fortunately, we still

Founder Friday returns to The Hatch Lab on March 29th with Mark Kellett the special guest for the evening.
What?
Founder Friday is a free monthly networking meet-up for founders, innovators and the wider business community over drinks and nibbles. The event is an opportunity to wrap up the week with networking and an inspiring fireside chat with an established entrepreneur from Leinster.
Who will be there?
The guest for the evening will be Mark Kellett, of Magnet Networks. Mark Kellett is an internationally recognised CEO with vast experience across technology, software, telecoms and media with firms such as Yahoo!, Network Appliance, Sun Microsystems and Aer Lingus globally. He is heavily involved with Enterprise Ireland and sits on their start-up advisory panel.
As CEO of Magnet Networks, Mark has grown his company from its Irish roots as a dedicated telecoms company into a developing global company that is fast becoming a leader in the connectivity IoT and Smart City solutions arena and now operates across five continents. Mark drives Magnet Networks’ challenger thinking, which has led to the brand being the trusted choice of some of the world’s biggest companies. Mark continues to push the boundaries of traditional telecoms thinking, and his achievements outside of the office include climbing Mount Everest and swimming the English Channel. Hatch Lab resident, Sarah Jane Vincent of Miss Content Creative, will be MC for the evening.
How to register
Founder Friday is run by Bank of Ireland in partnership with Wexford County Council, and will be hosted by Emer Cooney, community enterprise manager with Bank of Ireland as well as John O’Connor, The Hatch Lab manager.  To register for the event, visit the registration page here.
If you have any further queries, please contact John O’Connor at john@eetc.ie or Tina Coleman at tina@thehatchlab.ie.

Kylie and Billy Magner produce pasture-raised eggs and pasture-raised chicken. Kylie provides some background to starting a poultry enterprise, and producing an award-winning chicken bone broth.

How did you start farming?
I grew up on a farm in Australia and Billy’s background has been in the equine industry in Ireland. In 2016, Billy and I took the decision to leave Australia, along with our four children, to return to Ireland to a small farm, that we previously purchased back in 2004. We started out with some sheep and cattle and hens, but we soon began to focus on the hens as an enterprise. Hens return cash on a weekly basis, which as you can imagine is not the case with cattle or sheep.
We began by selling eggs from the few hens that we had; and my son Finn, who was eight years of age at the time, was soon onboard with the enterprise. We kept the money in a jar and when we had enough money to buy more hens; we bought more hens and it just really all developed from there. In October 2017 we started in earnest, buying 150 commercial laying hens from James Ryan, a breeder from Cork. James gave us some great advice on infrastructure and how to manage the hens and we started off selling at farmer markets.
Pasture-range
We didn’t have any experience in poultry management, so we possibly approached things slightly differently. We allowed our hens out on grass where they ‘creep graze’ like cattle or sheep, topping up on fresh vegetation and natural food from the soil during the day. Soon our eggs began getting really good reviews and lots of people began buying on a regular basis.
Last June we bought another 300 hens and again our markets continued to grow. We sell our eggs,

You can take a healthcheck for your business by clicking here.

Is your business in good shape financially? Take two minutes to check your financial health and learn how to improve it.

Gill Carroll’s journey in business has seen many setbacks, but each time she got back up and turned things around. Here’s her remarkable story.
Everybody loves a success story – especially one that strikes just the right balance of determination, passion, values, and dedication. Gill Carroll, the proud owner of 37 West and 56 Central, two unique restaurants in Galway city, is living proof of entrepreneurship done right. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, she talks about the importance of continuous improvement, the meaning of giving to the community, and the changing culture in a male-dominated industry.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in the restaurant industry?
I grew up surrounded by business. My father is the creator and owner of Zhivago music shop in Galway city. My mother is a nurse. The combination of the two led me into the hospitality industry. I had a burning desire to add value to people’s lives.
I studied business and hotel management in GMIT. While doing my degree, I also did a certificate in human resources. From an early age, I knew I needed to have a broad education. I invest in my education every year through courses, talks, books, podcasts, masterminds and people. Anywhere I can learn, I am there.
I got my first taste of being a business owner at 26 in Edinburgh when I was approached by my boss at the time to open a Gastro Bar with him. Wow, what an experience! Two years of insane work, I made so many mistakes. The bar became successful, but I didn’t as a human. I was looking at it all the wrong way around. Partnerships are so hard. After two years and a broken heart from a breakup, I returned home to Ireland.
It took me a while to get back on track.

Beauty entrepreneur Debbie Mulhall talks about starting her company from nothing, the importance of constant learning and following your passion.
“Success didn’t come without its challenges and my greatest lessons were not easily learned,” says Debbie Mulhall, owner of Urba Skin Clinic in Athlone and Dollface Brows in Tullamore. She talks to Think Business about starting a company from nothing, the importance of constant learning, hard work, and following your passion.
You are the owner of two successful beauty salons, what inspired you to get into the industry?
I lived in New York for nine years and opened my first business there when I was 26. Most people are quite surprised to learn that my first venture was an American sports bar and grill and not at all beauty or skincare related. I had my daughter in 2011 and returned home to raise her in Ireland. This was a challenging time in Ireland as we were in the depth of the recession. I was in a financial bind and realised quickly that I needed a plan and the bar and restaurant industry in Ireland didn’t quite have the same sparkle as the New York scene.
I realised it was time to follow my passion for beauty and skincare and I started very small with a very basic skill set and grew from there. I started my career freelancing with a set of brushes and a two-week makeup course certificate under my belt. I worked two bar jobs to support me while I honed my skills and got my name out there. The success came from relentless hunger and passion.
What do you consider as your biggest professional success so far?
My biggest professional success would have to be opening the door to a single treatment room in 2013, without any budget or even signage or new

Supermac’s co-owner Una McDonagh shares her secret formula to building Ireland’s largest and fastest-growing indigenous fast food restaurant group.
When a young Leaving Certificate student with her heart set on becoming a garda was too young to begin training, she instead started working part-time at a local fast food restaurant in Ballinasloe, County Galway. Now, over 40 years later Una McDonagh is the co-owner of Supermacs, Ireland’s largest and fastest-growing indigenous fast food group, with over 116 restaurants across the country and employing over 4,000 staff, including franchises.
She puts the success of the chain down to hard work, good personal relationships with staff and staying ahead of the curve.
“Our success has come from hard work and from the great people we have working for us,” says Una. “Some of those people are with us for 35 years. Pat (husband and Supermac’s founder) opened his first shop in Ballinasloe in June 1978, I started working there part-time two weeks after my Leaving Cert. Going back 35 years, we had a good few people at a young age working for us, going to college to get their degree and coming back to us. One of our operations managers did engineering in college, he was working with us part-time and stayed on. Now he is one of the key people in the building of the new units. There are many more staff like that, who did accountancy or business and are still with us.
“We are very hands-on; we know a lot of the staff. We would try to visit every shop at least once a month and the franchisees three or four times a year. It’s very important to be able to put faces to names. The fact that we are known to staff makes them more loyal, rather than a faceless company,” she adds.
“ It’s very

Vanessa Creaven, who co-founded Spotlight Whitening with her sister, says women have unique abilities which makes for great entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial success isn’t about “any special talents or intellect but about hard work and determination”, says Vanessa Creaven, a dentist, who along with her sister Lisa, founded Spotlight Whitening, a revolutionary range for safe and effective teeth whitening at home. Spotlight has not only become a household name in Ireland but now it is also available in eight countries, across 7,000 retailers.

You and your sister, Lisa, run two successful businesses – your dental clinic and Spotlight Whitening. How do you juggle between the two?
Juggle is a very good word to describe it, it is a bit of a juggle. Myself and Lisa are dentists so we run a practice called Quay Dental. That’s where we work for let’s say a part of the week and before Spotlight was formed we were both full-time on the practice. Looking at it, the practice gives us a lot of ideas for when we form our products for the Spotlight.
For example, what we saw was that a lot of our patients didn’t have a real alternative to teeth whitening other than the whitening that we provided in the practice, which is a little bit of an investment as it costs around 300 euros. So we decided to come up with a product that could be used over the counter, that it would be available in a pharmacy, through a retailer, that would give a good result, wouldn’t cause sensitivity and would be a little more affordable. And that’s how we came up with Spotlight Whitening.
I think we are quite diligent with our time, we spend time in the afternoon touching base with the Spotlight team and how they are getting on. I also think we are very focused