260 jobs created in Cork with aid of Local Enterprise Office

Almost 260 jobs were created by small companies in Co Cork last year with the help of more than €1m in grant-aid.

Caption: Sharon Corcoran, director of economic development and tourism, Cork County Council; Deirdre O’Mahony, senior business development officer, LEO Cork North and West; Peter White, Beara Distillery; Kevin Curran, head of enterprise, LEO Cork North and West at the launch of Cork’s Local Enterprise Week. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

Almost 70 companies using Cork County Council’s Local Enterprise Office (LEO) structure helped provide new jobs across a wide range of sectors including food, tech, retail, and professional services.

The LEO offices in Cork North, Cork West, and South Cork granted €1.2m in financial supports in 2017 for manufacturing and internationally-traded micro-enterprises throughout the county.

The figures were released to coincide with Local Enterprise Week which runs from March 5- 9, with dozens of events throughout the county.

The planned schedule includes conferences, workshops, seminars, networking, and business advice clinics.

Among the activities is a Women in Business event on International Women’s Day, March 8, with feature speakers Marissa Carter of Cocoa Brown Tan, and communications expert Terry Prone.

A Taste Cork event will showcase Cork’s budding food businesses on March 5, a Design-Led-Thinking Seminar in Vienna Woods on March 8 is aimed at Cork crafters and designers and a business finance seminar will run on March 9 at the Ludgate Hub.

In total, Cork County LEO’s delivered training to more than 2,320 people through the network’s 152 business training programmes.

The offices also engaged with 39 schools and more than 4,100 Transition Year students who participate in programmes which promotes entrepreneurship. A further 744 business owners received mentoring through a LEO programme which connects appointed mentors from a cross-section of professions to business owners.

Sean O’Sullivan, head of enterprise, LEO South Cork said that 2017 had been one of the network’s most successful years in terms of grant funding. It had led to the creation of almost 260 jobs for the region.

“Co Cork is on the up and we are proud to support our business owners and entrepreneurs who are committed to creating jobs and growing their businesses,” he said.

His colleague Kevin Curran, who heads LEO in Cork North and West, said the LEO’s primary aim is to improve on these figures over 2018. “With so many innovative new businesses in our midst we are confident that this year will see a further upturn in demand for our supports.