A total of 89 Cork-based micro-enterprises received approval for combined funding of €1.7m last year, driving one of the most successful years of entrepreneurship in the county.

Students with entrepreneurial flair have been firmly assured by Oscar-winning producer-turned-educationalist David Puttnam: “You are the people the world has been waiting for.”

Sending Italian- style biscuits to a French cosmetics company based in Belgium is just one example of what an enterprising West Cork company can do.

Irish Atlantic Seasalt has won the overall prize in the West Cork Enterprise Board’s Local Company of the Year Award 2012.

THE export possibilities of Irish sea salt are now being explored by a small West Cork company which has set up a processing plant close to the coast on the Beara Peninsula.

The future for new Irish businesses looks harmonious judging by the ideas of young company directors in West Cork.

SMALL businesses remain the lifeblood of rural Ireland where budding entrepreneurs have not been beaten down by the continuing economic doom and gloom.

Food producers from across Cork and Kerry will gather for a regional ‘food summit’ next week to explore ways of boosting an industry which has the potential to create up to 2,500 jobs over the next eight years.

Artisan food companies in Cork and Kerry are joining forces to promote their wares and build on current employment levels.

Pet-food producer Seahorse Atlantic is launching its innovative range of organically grown seaweed-based products on the British market.

Fifty Cork food and beverage businesses hope to boost their export sales following a targeted two-day food industry trip to Amsterdam.

A €15,000 prize fund, four ‘warhorses’ and one blindingly good business idea — that’s Clon’trepreneur, an initiative by a West Cork town determined to stimulate local employment.

For the first time the population of the seven inhabited islands off the Cork coast have elected a joint community council which they hope will give them greater clout when it comes to gaining vital inward investment.

MARRIED men can be prone to exaggeration. Especially with a pint in our hands and reminiscing about the days when we were single.

THE newly-built smokehouse in Bandon, Co Cork, owned by fishmonger brothers Pat and Paul O’Connell could create up to eight jobs next year.

FOR anybody involved in the food industry, a major event being held in Cork tonight is certainly not one to miss.

A MOUTH-WATERING networking event will be served up to the people of Cork next week.

LEADING entrepreneurs revealed the secrets of their success to a new generation of young entrepreneurs at a special conference yesterday.

AN enterprising mother who creates natural beauty products got a Dragon’s Den-style boost just when she needed it.

A DOZEN new business incubation units are to be established in Co Cork to help promote the indigenous food sector.

WORRYING employment and migration figures have emerged in the south-west corner of the country, fuelling concern that the region is in economic free-fall.

WORRYING employment and migration figures have emerged in the south-west corner of the country, fuelling concern that the region is in economic free-fall.

TWO business networks, one of them for women, were launched in west Cork by Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin last week.

AN innovative pay parking utility will fly the flag for Cork at the National Enterprise Awards final next week.