Robert Roberts backs Irish firms

TALLAGHT: Robert Roberts, one of Ireland’s oldest businesses, has announced deals worth almost €1m with local suppliers.

The deals are part of a programme by the company to bring back business such as the printing and production of packaging that it had outsourced to other countries during the boom years. Further announcements of business repatriated back to Ireland are expected in the near future.

“We have always roasted our coffee and blended our teas here in Dublin,” , said Ken Maguire, Production Director at Robert Roberts.

“We never believed in outsourcing the core elements of our business. However, during the boom years, as input costs increased, to remain competitive like most manufacturers we had to explore every avenue of supply and sourcing. This led to much of our packaging being supplied from outside of Ireland.”

Actus Mobile to hire 18 staff

Bray: Actus Mobile, a Wicklow-based company providing technologies that enables businesses across a wide variety of sectors to connect with their target markets through their mobile phones, has launched its m:Cypher platform onto the world market and plans to hire 18 new workers.

Commenting on the launch of m:Cypher, MD of Actus Mobile Pat Fox said: “Because of the level of interest in our applications, we have commenced a hiring programme to recruit in excess of 18 high-level, multi-disciplined staff immediately, including senior mobile application developers, to join our team at our Ireland HQ in Bray, Co Wicklow.”

Annual Economic Policy Conference

Kenmare: The Dublin Economic Workshop’s 34th Annual Economic Policy Conference will take place in Kenmare from October 14 to 16. Keynote speaker will be International Monetary Fund’s Ajai Chopra, who will speak on “Strengthening the Financial Stability Framework of the Euro Area”.

Goodbody Stockbrokers chief economist Dermot O’Leary and UCC’s Don Walshe will deliver a paper on “Debt De-leveraging, the Banks and Economic Recovery”.

Credit access low for small business

Dublin: Lack of access to overdraft facilities or bank loans is still an issue for the small business community and continues to have a serious effect on trading and operations.

County and City Enterprise Boards’ figures in their bi-annual Business and Banking Confidence survey found that over a third of small businesses felt that the availability of credit has deteriorated since January 2011, representing 37% of all those surveyed.