Megazyme has won the Irish Exporters Association’s Innovation Exporter of the Year Award 2012. Mr Richard Bruton, T.D., Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, was guest speaker at the ceremony in O’Reilly Hall UCD and along with Mr Terence O’Rourke of KPMG, presented the award to Dr Barry McCleary of Megazyme.
Sponsored by KPMG this award recognises companies that have made a significant innovative contribution to exporting resulting in a new technology, product or service, or a new use for an existing product. Other companies short listed for the Award were Danone Ireland with facilities in Wexford and Cork, Ingredients Solutions Ltd of Cork.
Based in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Megazyme develops, manufactures and sells innovative diagnostic test kits and reagents for quality management in the cereals, food, wine and biofuels industries. The company is growing rapidly and currently exports to over 60 countries. The major markets for the company are the USA, the UK, France, Germany and Australia. Sales to China are also growing substantially. The company has recently submitted a patent for a novel procedure to measure the key enzyme involved in digestion of cellulosic biomass, namely cellulase.
Mr Colin Lawlor, President of the Irish Exporters Association, speaking at the Awards Ceremony said that Irish exporters, despite the current global economic uncertainty, are still managing to show credible growth. “At the Irish Exporters Association we believe that exports will continue to be the driving force that will bring Ireland out its economic doldrums,” said Mr Lawlor. Mr Lawlor congratulated all the exporters who took part in the Export Industry Awards Programme for 2012 and said that he was certain that the exporting community are fully committed to ensure that Ireland’s economic recovery is export-led and that Megazyme is an example of the innovation behind our export sector.
Photographed above:
L-R: Terence O'Rourke (Managing Partner, KPMG), Minister Richard Bruton TD (Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation) , Colin Lawlor (President, Irish Exporter’s Association), Dr. Barry McCleary (CEO, Megazyme)pictured at the Irish Exporter of the Year Awards 2012.