Dragon’s Den entrepreneur angered at board inaction

Entrepreneur angered at enterprise board inaction


Dragon’s Den entrant claims Mayo has lost out on 40 jobs

Anton McNulty

THE Mayo Enterprise Board have been accused of ignoring the potential for 40 jobs in Castlebar after a local entrepreneur claimed their delays in processing his business plan meant he had to relocate to Clare.
Mayo based entrepreneur Kevin Rickard - who along with his son Tony recently appeared on the Dragon’s Den television show with their product, ‘The Water Guardian’ - claimed he had to locate all his business to Clare because the Mayo Enterprise Board (MEB) had his business plan for 12 weeks and had not even looked at it.
Mr Rickard told The Mayo News that in that time he had no correspondence from the MEB and he risked losing a years’ business by the delay. He claimed that in three weeks, the Clare Enterprise Board, had processed his application and approved a ‘substantial’ grant to set up his business in Clare.
“I sent in my application to MEB and four months later they had not even wrote to me, and I was fed up waiting. I went into them and they said they had not looked at my business plan because they were too busy. If I had to wait for them I would have to put my deadline back and risk losing a year of business. Having to wait four months is not right and I was so cross with them that I asked for my business plan back.
“The same application in Clare took three weeks to process and they went through it with a fine tooth comb and gave my son the third degree. Three days afterwards they offered us a substantial grant. It is heartbreaking that the county is crying out for jobs and because of the laid-back attitude of Mayo Enterprise Board I now have to travel to Clare to oversee my business,” he said.
‘The Water Guardian’ which Mr Rickard hopes to produce is a garden product designed to save water. It received a positive response from the ‘Dragons’ on the RTE show. Production is due to start in in Scariff in Clare in June and the product will also be assembled and distributed in the plant, eventhough Mr Rickard claimed he wanted to open a factory in Castlebar.
“We wanted to have the product assembled here in Mayo but we couldn’t because we couldn’t get assistance. This would have created four jobs in the first year and if the product sells like we believe it will, and all indications are that it will, we are hoping to create 40 jobs over the next two or three years.”
In response to Mr Rickard’s claims, Mr Padraig McDermott of the Mayo Enterprise Board said that applications take time to be processed and Mr Rickard withdrew his application before it could be brought to the board for approval.
“He is partially correct and incorrect, in that he did make an application with us but his son also lodged an application with the Clare Enterprise Board. There is always a delay in these things because it takes time to evaluate a project and bring it before the board for approval. However, it didn’t get that far because the gentleman withdrew his application. Our understanding is that the project was to be located in Clare and we couldn’t do anything with a project located in Clare,” he said.
Mr Rickard said that he only planned to manufacture the project in Clare because there was no suitable factory in Mayo but he had always planned to assemble and distribute his product from Castlebar. Mr Rickard said demand for  ‘The Water Guardian’ was more than expected and his company hopes to produce 15,000 in the first year.
Mr Rickard, who lives in Tiernaur, has over 40 years business experience having owned a garden centre in the UK before moving to Ireland. He said that the country is ‘crying out’ for entrepreneurs and feels the attitude of the MEB will put young entrepreneurs off setting up a business.
“If someone who had no experience had been treated like I have I’m sure they would have given up on what they are trying to achieve. I can’t explain how hard setting up a business is; it is three times as hard as it looks and it is not as easy as people think. It takes a lot of work but hopefully the rewards will start to come from it,” he concluded.