To review the business stories from the past week, John was joined by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. They discuss the positive news announced by Intel that it is to create 1,600 jobs once it has completed the construction of a new chip manufacturing factory at its Leixlip campus. Another big story in the headlines this week was that of the Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez Canal, and Samantha chats through the implications of this on supply chain and Logistics. 

As the debate about when locked down retail should be allowed to re-open continues,  John chatted with Tommy Hickson of Hickson’s Supervalu who, with the exception of Christmas and St. Stephens Day has been open every day since the Covid crisis kicked off. Tommy discusses what working through the pandemic has been like, what have been the biggest issues and what we can learn for re-opening businesses.

With fraud an ever present threat and payment redirection fraud in particular continuing to cost local business, John spoke with Paul O' Brien from Bank of Ireland Group Security about their recent research as well as tips and advice on protecting your business from fraud.

During the week KCLR’s Brian Redmond was the host for the online finals of the Kilkenny Local Enterprise Office Student Enterprise Awards. 
The programme encourages students to create, design and market their own business with the ultimate prize the title of Senior County Winner and a place in the National Final of the awards Scheme which takes place on May 14th 2021. 

The winner was Tara McGuire of Presentation Secondary School in Kilkenny and Tara spoke with John to tell him all about how she developed her business "Slates by Tara".

It has been a momentous few weeks for Ballykeefe Distillery with the release of their first ever whiskey, the culmination of a dream that began over 25 years ago. John spoke with Morgan Ging, the entrepreneur behind the business.

With thanks to O’Neill Foley, Produced by Deirdre Dromey.

To contact the show, email: [email protected]

Bord Bia, the State organisation responsible for supporting the national and international ambitions of Irish food, drink and horticulture businesses announced that 2020, the year of the pandemic was in fact a record year for horticulture. Carol Marks, Horticulture Sector Manager at Bord Bia spoke with John to discuss the Garden Market Research in more detail.

Kilkenny business owners Anne Barber of Butterslip and Rory Gannon of Cakeface chat with John about the Urban Regeneration & Development Fund and how it may help businesses in Kilkenny City, they also chat about business through the existing lockdown period.

Following on from the recent Government announcement that Carlow and Kilkenny are to receive €28million as part of the Urban Regeneration & Development Fund, John spoke to Kieran Comerford, Head of Enterprise & Economic Development at Carlow Local Enterprise about what the funding will mean for Carlow.

Donal O'Donovan Business Editor at the Irish Independent joined John to discuss some of the business stories making the headlines over the past week.

Bord Bia, the State organisation responsible for supporting the national and international ambitions of Irish food, drink and horticulture businesses announced that 2020, the year of the pandemic was in fact a record year for horticulture. Carol Marks, Horticulture Sector Manager at Bord Bia spoke with John to discuss the Garden Market Research in more detail.

Following on from the Government announcement earlier in the week that Carlow and Kilkenny are to receive €28million as part of the Urban Regeneration & Development Funding, John spoke to Kieran Comerford, Head of Enterprise & Economic Development at Carlow Local Enterprise and to Kilkenny business owners, Anne Barber of Butterslip and Rory Gannon of Cakeface to discuss what the funding will mean for businesses.

With thanks to O’Neill Foley, Produced by Deirdre Dromey.

To contact the show, email: [email protected]

Giuseppe & Bruna Liga opened their Italian Grocery & Coffee Shop, La Bottega on James Street, Kilkenny on the days leading up to Christmas and in the midst of the Pandemic.  They joined John to chat about their decision to open their shop in Kilkenny and how business has been so far.

"Twenty Questions" is a new feature on The Bottom Line, the aim of which is to get know the people behind the businesses and organisations in our communities. Joining John for our first episode of Twenty Questions was Declan Doyle, Vice President for Development & Research at Institute of Technology Carlow.

Linda Nolan, Managing Director of MyBio Ltd a Life Sciences company based in Kilkenny City spoke with John about her organisation and the work they do as well as discussing the pandemic, the role of Covid-19 rapid antigen self-testing in the fight to curb the spread of the virus and how MyBio Ltd. is hoping to have testing kits on shelves by April.

On the programme this week, John was joined by Sam Matthews, Editor of The Kilkenny People to discuss some of the business stories from the past week, from the good news that Carlow and Kilkenny are to receive funding for the Abbey Quarter project, streetscapes in Kilkenny and Project Carlow 2040, to Fraud Awareness Week and the University in the South East.

Linda Nolan, Managing Director of MyBio Ltd a Life Sciences company based in Kilkenny City spoke with John about her organisation and the work they do as well as discussing the pandemic, the role of Covid-19 rapid antigen self-testing in the fight to curb the spread of the virus and how MyBio Ltd. is hoping to have testing kits on shelves by April.

Our new feature "Twenty Questions" kicked off this week, the aim of which is to get know the people behind the businesses and organisations in our communities. This week joining John for Twenty Questions was Declan Doyle, Vice President for Development & Research at Institute of Technology Carlow.

Giuseppe & Bruna Liga opened their Italian Grocery & Coffee Shop, La Bottega on James Street, Kilkenny on the days leading up to Christmas, this week Bruna & Giuseppe joined John to chat about their decision to open their shop in Kilkenny and how business has been so far.

With thanks to O’Neill Foley, Produced by Deirdre Dromey.

To contact the show, email: [email protected]

The main story making the headlines was that of Davy Stockbrokers and Dara Doyle, Bloomberg Bureau Chief in Ireland chatted to John about the story in more detail. Dara also spoke with John about the economic outlook with the Central Statistics Office having released preliminary figures outlining that GDP increased by 3.4% in 2020.