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Leeson Enterprise Centre, the right start for Start-Ups!

Date: 04-09-2020

Success breeds success!

The Leeson Enterprise Centre is a modern Innovation hub in Westport town that provides high quality space and supports for businesses and start-ups.  The good news is that due to the success of some of their original clients, there are two serviced office spaces becoming available in early 2021.

The centre was developed as a joint venture between Mayo County Council, Westport Chamber of commerce and key business leaders in the Town to provide start up space for innovative businesses in the area.  It offers facilities and space for a range of small businesses, from a one-to-two desk set up to rooms that can hold three to four and five to six desks of an up-scaling company. Training facilities, break out spaces and business supports are also available to clients based at the centre

To date, Leeson Enterprise Centre has enjoyed great success, with two years of full occupancy since its official opening in May 2018. Some of Mayo's most successful new businesses, such as Payslip, a fintech start-up that provides software that manages payroll for businesses with employees around the world, started out in the Leeson Enterprise Centre and have grown their business from there.

Success for some of these early clients has now resulted in two businesses outgrowing their home in the Leeson Centre which will result in opportunities for new start-ups to base their business in this exciting and supportive workplace.

The businesses soon to graduate from the centre are Skillko, a Mayo company that offers training, safety and compliance management to help businesses ensure they have a trained workforce and HGF Ltd, one of Europe’s largest firms of Intellectual Property specialists. Both companies enjoyed all the positive supports and connections that the Leeson Enterprise Centre can provide as a base to start a business in Ireland.

Speaking of his experience in the LEC, Brendan Maloney of Skillko: “Following two years of research for Skillko I needed office space to progress my start-up. After a discussion with a friend Neil O'Neill, he suggested that I view the new Leeson Enterprise Centre, and it went from there. The Leeson Enterprise Centre has been a fundamental part of our growth in Skillko. The worry of the day to day running of an office was taken away, allowing us to focus on growing our company and provided a professional space for us to bring our clients to. We will be forever thankful for the support that the management team provided along our journey and the sense of community that has been built between all of us businesses in the Leeson.

We are ready to graduate from the LEC to a new premises in September 2020. I started out by myself in May 2017 and shortly afterwards made my first hire and have been gradually recruiting as out business has grown…. our goal is to create 30 positions over the next 3-5 years here in Westport, Co Mayo.”

Geraldine Horkan, CEO Westport Chamber who manages the centre on behalf of the joint venture:

"We focus on nurturing start-ups and international businesses who have one or two employees as their Irish office, we have watched several companies grow from single desks to flourishing businesses. They are proof that it is possible to grow a sustainable business from an Enterprise Centre in the West of Ireland, and that Co Mayo is an extremely attractive location to relocate for work or to start your own enterprise."

Anyone interested in finding out more about office space in the Leeson Enterprise Centre should contact Geraldine on 

 +353 (0)98-28536 or Geraldine@westportireland.com

More information about the Leeson Enterprise Centre can be found here: 

Notes to Editors

The Leeson Enterprise centre is a public-private partnership, and is overseen by the Westport Multi-Agency Enterprise Group. 




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