Firms generate French business

MORE than €1 million worth of business was generated by Irish firms over the past two days during a trade mission held in the French Riviera.

The trip, organised by business development group CorkBIC along with its sister group CICOM, which is based just outside Nice, southern France, was seen as a huge success by all those involved.

Five Irish companies met with top French-based firms such as IBM, Philips, Cisco, Orange Telecom and Schneider Electric, which employs 105,000 people worldwide.

The trip was to give the Irish companies a stepping stone into the French market and explore the business opportunities available to them.

Similar trips will be organised again by CorkBIC, which said the French mission was hugely beneficial.

The group’s chief executive Michael O’Connor said: “We met with 15 firms at a very serious decision-making level and there were more than 30 meetings organised over the two days. It was a very successful trip.”

The Irish firms that travelled on the trade mission included EHA Soft, Deep-Insight, J6 Technology, LightStorm Networks and Xerenet.

The trip centred around Sophia Antipolis, which is the largest technology park in Europe and is known as its Silicon Valley.