One of Roscommon’s most impressive businesses, Lidan Designs, has been announced as a finalist for this year’s National Enterprise Awards. The awards, an initiative of the Local Enterprise Offices, will take place virtually on the 11th February.
Lidan Designs was selected to represent Local Enterprise Office Roscommon at the awards and will compete against 29 other finalists for a prize fund totaling €50,000.
Lidan Designs was founded by Dan O’Brien and Liam Casey in 2017 to commercialise their novel, air-tight, timber-frame modular building system in the home office/garden room/residential market. Their stylish, factory-produced, nZEB, ultra-low energy modular buildings, rank at the very top of the market in terms of build quality, energy efficiency, aesthetics, price and ease/speed of transportation and installation.
Starting with garden-rooms, Lidan have expanded their offering to now include a wide range of residential and commercial buildings, all built modularly in their factory in Roscommon from sustainable materials. They have a very strong focus on innovation and this has been recognised by their success on the Enterprise Ireland Agile Programme, which is helping Lidan Designs to further develop the size and range of energy efficient buildings that they can construct modularly in-factory using innovative materials and designs.
Through the hard work of Dan, Liam and their team, and with support from Roscommon County Council and the Local Enterprise Office, Lidan Designs has grown into a hugely successful business in a very short time.
The National Enterprise Awards finalists, selected by the Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities, represent a diverse range of businesses that are supported by the LEOs across the country. Now in their 22nd year, the awards celebrate small businesses and includes awards that recognise excellence in exporting, sustainability and innovation along with eight regional awards and an overall National Enterprise Awards winner.
This year also sees the addition of two new award categories that reflect the challenging business conditions that companies have faced in 2020. The Pivot Award will be presented to a company who has successfully pivoted their business in the face of challenging conditions in the last 12 months. The Brexit Ready Award will be presented to a company who have excelled in their preparation for Brexit particularly where it would have created specific challenges for them as a business.
Louise Ward, Head of Enterprise Local Enterprise Office Roscommon said: “It has been a challenging year for small businesses so this is a chance to highlight positive stories and businesses who have excelled in the face of unprecedented challenges. These businesses have been through a rigorous process of judging, auditing every aspect of their business and this in itself can be a huge benefit to them as they plan for the future.
“Whether they win or not these finalists are well positioned to follow in the footsteps of the great companies that have gone before them such as Pestle & Mortar, Simtech Aviation and Terra NutriTech and as a network, the Local Enterprise Offices look forward to continuing to support them to help them grow”.
The National Enterprise Awards are one of a number of initiatives that the Local Enterprise Offices run to foster entrepreneurship across the country. Others include Local Enterprise Week, the Student Enterprise Programme and National Women’s Enterprise Day.
* The Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities are funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland. For more information see www.LocalEnterprise.ie/awards
