• January 13, 2015

Our Chamber community brings businesses together to develop our local economy and promote and enable local commerce, providing quality goods and services at home and abroad. West Waterford’s business community is committed to excellence through innovation, personal service and value, guaranteeing that customers feel the benefits of supporting local enterprise. This relationship ensures that money stays in the local economy, maintaining jobs, creating opportunity and strengthening our community. Our unity allows us to present West Waterford as a strong, vibrant region, attracting the visitors and investment that will help us to grow into the future. Working together, the West Waterford Chamber business community will continue to grow from strength to strength in 2015. Here’s a reminder of what we achieved together in 2014:

  • Welcomed 25 new members to the Chamber community, ensuring we maintain a strong voice on all matters impacting local business.

  • Sold over €235,000 worth of Chamber Vouchers which will be used only to buy products and services sold by Chamber member businesses, securing this money for our region.

  • Our member businesses employed over 2500 local staff and availed of the Jobs Plus Initiative to create employment in our region.

  • Provided work experience to 184 unemployed people through internships, developing skills and confidence.

  • 47 businesses took part in the Painting Scheme, investing in their businesses to brighten and maintain the high standard of presentation in our town centre.

  • Over 200 businesses and individuals put themselves forward and were nominated for recognition in the 2014 Chamber FBD Business Awards.

  • 36 exceptional entrants were shortlisted for their work as entrepreneurs, social contributors, and providers of business and service excellence. 12 overall winners were recognised in a range of categories at the Annual Awards ceremony in Lismore Castle.

  • Over 750 attendees took part in our 15 Chamber networking events, including Afterhours, Business Breakfasts, Training Courses and Seminars on various topics. These events provided information, education, B2B sales, relationship building, ideas sharing, PR and a strengthening of links within our community.  

  • Working together we built on the success of “Dungarvan Aglow” from its first year in 2013, by increasing and enhancing the activities, events and illuminations that attracted attention to our town right through the Christmas period and yielded hugely positive responses from visitors and local shoppers. A co-ordinated social media campaign was successfully implemented across Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and a dedicated blog, encouraging all our social media followers to shop locally and visit our town.

  • The Chamber took on the management of Dungarvan Tourist Office and oversaw its relocation to its new premises on Main Street. We aim to develop a more integrated tourism plan for the area, involving all local businesses and working closely with the Waterford Council, to raise West Waterford’s profile as a great place to shop and visit, live and work.

  • We lobbied for the continuation of free Half Hour Parking for 2014 in Scanlan’s Yard and the Plaza carpark following the successful trial in December 2013.

  • We kept businesses informed during the rates revaluation process – which required affected businesses to explore payment options with the help of the office.

  • We made representations on behalf of the business community at various meetings and workshops to ensure Dungarvan & West Waterford received due funding, commitment and priority from our newly merged County & City Council.

  • We highlighted 6 specific funding opportunities for business development.

  • Our office supported local festivals by providing funding, advertising and getting involved.

  • We gathered and promoted Special Offers and Good News using the Chamber social media applications, our ‘This is Dungarvan’ App and our website.

  • 46 businesses took part in our regular mail-outs, promoting their goods and services to fellow members.

  • 33 retailers attended the Rethinking Retail Seminar, with 16 businesses taking part in the resulting Retail Mentoring Programme provided by Waterford City & County Council and Retail Excellence Ireland.

  • We compiled a weekly Chamber newsletter, keeping the community up to date with news, developments, business tips and special offers of value to members.

  • We appointed a new President – Christine O’Donovan, and Vice President – Annemarie Rossiter to take office at our AGM in July 2014, and added three members to the Board of Directors and who will represent our community until July 2016.