Enterprise Ireland
Annual Report and Accounts 2004
Annual Report and Accounts 2004
In 2004, Irish companies showed their determination to succeed and expand in the global marketplace, despite changing market demands and increasing competitive pressures, especially from low-cost markets such as China and Central and Eastern Europe. They are embracing the necessary change that is needed to survive and succeed in world markets.
Today more than ever before, Irish economic success depends on the growth of our own companies. This success lies in the research, commercialisation, production and sale of higher value-added products and services to worldwide markets. The low-cost model of production is no longer available to Irish companies. They have to compete using high-value, knowledge-intensive activities to support jobs and relatively high wage rates. We strongly support innovation and creativity within our client companies and work closely with them to achieve increased competitiveness and scale.
At Enterprise Ireland, we also adjusted our focus and undertook a wide-ranging review of our strategy and objectives. This was led by our clients, market research, the work of the Enterprise Strategy Group, the Inter-Departmental Implementation Group, Forfás, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Board of Enterprise Ireland.
As a result, we have committed to a new strategy with a heavy emphasis on research and innovation, export growth, competitiveness and entrepreneurship to deliver greater numbers of new high growth companies with strong export potential. We have a particular focus on achieving balanced regional growth, which is fundamental to Ireland’s economic success. Overall, our aim is to help Irish companies to grow into self-sustaining, scaled enterprises with a strong international market presence.
Our new focus included organisational change within Enterprise Ireland. Staff at home and overseas have been re-positioned to work more closely with clients on an individual basis and on a sectoral basis. Dedicated business units have been established to better match changing client and market requirements, including an International Sales and Partnering Unit, led by Gerry Murphy; and an Applied Research and Commercialisation Unit, led by Feargal Ó Móráin. We have also established three new sectoral business units to encourage growth in the key areas of: food and retail consumer markets; software, services and emerging sectors; and industrial and lifesciences markets.
As part of our new approach, all entrepreneurs establishing enterprises with high export growth potential will be supported by a dedicated High Potential Start-Up Division. It has the resources to work with entrepreneurs as their businesses progress from the initial concept phase through the start-up stage and into further growth and development. In addition, we have established a Scaling Division to increase the number of Irish small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that develop to become scaled industrial firms. The emergence of such scaled companies is an important contributor to the continued success of the Irish economy.
A very important element in our drive to improve service to our clients was the launch of the Client Charter in September 2004. The Client Charter is an essential element in our drive to deliver a specific measurable improvement in the quality of service we offer to clients.
Our focus is on five main areas of activity:
Achieving export sales: Enterprise Ireland’s primary focus is the achievement of international success for client companies. In 2004, overall client exports increased by 5.6% to €10.167 billion. Exports to Northern Europe increased by 7.2% to €6.0 billion. The UK remained the single largest export market for our clients overall and the largest within the territory of Northern Europe, with €4.63 billion in exports, an increase of 6.3%. The largest growth in exports was to Asia with 19.6% growth to €501 million. Several sectors showed increased export growth. The food and retail consumer sector was the largest with €6.78 billion in exports, up 4.1% on 2003 with the primary meats sub-sector achieving strong growth at 11.2%. The largest growth sector was software, services and emerging sectors which showed a growth of 10.4% to €1.2 billion.