Golf Society Outings 2022

The Chamber are delighted to announce our 2022 outings for the Chamber Golf Society; interested in getting involved? Email jennifer@countykildarechamber.ie to *book your slot at any of the below events.

Thursday 14th April Thursday 26th May Millicent Golf Club Kilkea Castle

Tee Times 1pm – 2.30pm €25pp Tee Times 1pm – 2.30pm €30pp Friday 17th June Palmer North (The K Club) Tee Times 8am - 1pm €75pp Thursday 22nd September Palmerstown House Estate Tee Times 12pm – 1.30pm €40pp

SAVE THE DATE!

Annual Chamber Golf Classic

This year’s Annual Chamber golf classic will take place in the K Club (Palmer North) on Thursday the 1st September with a 2pm shotgun start and a fee of €595 per team. Bookings will open in the coming weeks.

Sheehy Motor Group Leasing

A modern fleet creates a valuable first impression and presents your business professionally. Sheehy Motor Group Leasing gives you the ability to renew your Thinking of a career as an Automotive Technician? fleet regularly. This means you will always have the latest technology, the highest Then let Sheehy Motor Group put you in the driving seat of your own future quality safety features and the most efficient engines on the road. For business, with our Automotive Apprenticeship PLUS Programme. it’s the agility you need to really perform. Our programme is designed to provide you with the knowledge and practical skills necessary to pursue a dynamic career in this fast paced and evolving industry.

Join us for an information evening at Sheehy Motors Naas where we will demonstrate our comprehensive training & development programme and explain the great opportunities for those looking for a rewarding career in the motor industry.

The right fit for your business

Wednesday 20th March 7pm - 8.30pm.

If you are currently enrolled or thinking about an Apprenticeship, then this is the event for you.

To register please email hr@sheehymotors.ie

We look forward to meeting you.

Sheehy Motor Group

Celebrating 10 years in Business

Founded in 2012, Sweetspot are a team of sourcing specialists, based in Kildare. Co-owned by Fiona Craul and Susan Dempsey, they work with start-ups, brands and retailers on creating new products through their strong network of manufacturers worldwide, with particular expertise in Asia and Europe.

We work across all areas of the product sourcing journey, right from developing new products, to understanding where in the World a product should be made, through to prototyping, manufacturing, certification, and importation into the relevant markets. We offer a consultancy service for new and existing brands. This is suitable for those that would like to outsource the manufacturing of their product and therefore allows them to focus on Sales and Marketing. We also advise on product sourcing, product viability and material selection. We love what we do and will always go above and beyond to make sure that our clients’ expectations are met and, wherever, possible exceeded.

We started our journey about a year before we had the nerve to leave our secure jobs. The recession was in full swing and we pursued the dream of owning our own company. We knew we wanted to set up a business, and we knew we wanted to work together, but doing what? We were waiting for some fantastical idea or product in order to start, but then we realised we just needed to start! We both had experience in importing and exporting from Asia, and it was an obvious decision to use this combined knowledge to set up Sweetspot.

Our first office space was in the local chamber offices, as a start-up and with tight cashflow we both shared one desk for the first couple of months. We had huge support from Allan and his team right from the start, getting to know the other members was fantastic, both for moral support and for the networking opportunities.

Many of our very early clients were from these connections. The first few years were spent traveling, we needed to visit the factories we wanted to work with and create strong partner relationships with them. Finding new factories, and suppliers meant trawling the halls of trade shows all over Europe, Turkey & Asia. But these years have meant we have a solid foundation of suppliers to work with across a wide variety of product and materials, allowing us to react quickly to client requirements. We still travel to factories and trade shows, but in 2013, we established our China office, and this supports us in our dayto-day operations in China. Making It a little easier for us when we are over. Starting off we knew we needed to grow quickly in a very competitive market-place. Our strategy was to work with the larger retailers and brands from the beginning, and thankfully this was one that worked well for us. We were surprised at how open and accessible brands are to start ups, and also, flexible on their payment terms, especially in the beginning when we were establishing ourselves. In 2017 we expanded to a premises in Ladytown Business Park, this facilitated our growth further and we are still here today. Our team consists of Sue, Fiona, our operations manager Eleanor Cronin, our book-keeper Elaine Byrne, and Alan Chen in China.

We have continued to build a reputation and Global presence that guarantees we deliver the best-in-class customer service to our valued clients. Like most businesses, the past two years have been extremely challenging. In the early months of 2020, we offered our sourcing services to clients involved in the provision of personal safety equipment. We are now seeing huge changes in supply chain that have been a direct result of both the pandemic and Brexit. Many of our clients are considering manufacturing closer to home, and some of the projects we are working on now are looking at relocating manufacturing from Asia to Europe.

Looking back over the years there are many monumental things that we are very proud of, most notably, we won the Small Firms Association Award in 2017, for “Outstanding Small Business”, and in 2018 we won the Kildare Chamber “SME Business of the Year Award”. Turning ten is now our biggest milestone! And we are very proud of what we have achieved so far, we are very lucky in the support that has been available to us throughout the years, The County Kildare Chamber, The Local Enterprise Office and Intertrade Ireland have all been instrumental in our success to date. We learned many lessons in our ten years, and certainly this is one of them. The supports that are available for start-ups and SME’s in Ireland is incredible, sometimes it’s just about being aware of what’s out there, and applying for it. Another lesson we have also learnt is that when adversity hits, this is the best opportunity to show our customers and suppliers how good we are at dealing with problems and coming up with a satisfactory solution.

In 2021, we decided the time was right to re-brand. We had changed and grown, and felt it was time that our language and visual representation did too. We’ve had a great response to this, and we have found the most growth in our product development side of the business. There are so many amazing new products being developed in Ireland, and we love being able to get involved at the start with these brands. We hold workshops in our office in Naas, and these are real exploratory days that can be useful at many stages of a sourcing journey. In a typical session we get into the nitty gritty of the product, the stage it’s at, rough samples, sketches, pricing, materials, certifications required, all the elements that need to be considered at early stages in development. Or for some clients, they already have a product range, but would like to expand and add to this range, and we brainstorm here to come up ideas and designs for this. These workshops can be booked online directly through our website Half Day Exploratory Session - Sweetspot.

The 6th of February 2022 marked the official date of our 10 years in business and we are full of pride and very thankful for every friend, family member, customer, supplier and fellow business owner for their continued support and encouragement.