Laois County Winners of Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition announced

The winners in the Laois county finals of Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur were announced today at the Heritage Hotel in Killenard.  

Gary Cobbe of Irish Polymer Extrusions Ltd emerged as the overall winner. Gary also won his category of Best Established Business. 

Declan Dunne of Crate Studio was the winner of the Best Business Idea, while Jonathan Bracken won the Best Start Up Business. 

The three winners now go forward to represent Laois in the regional finals in January 

The list of IBYE Finalists were as follows: 

BEST NEW BUSINESS IDEA

Nina Gillen - Blissful Foods

Hollianne Phelan - Shopline

Declan Dunne - Crate Studio

Thomas Byrne -Sequential - Me

BEST NEW START-UP

Frankie Horan - CTM Professional Ltd.

Aaron Lennon - Linked

Jonathan Bracken - Bracken Enterprise

BEST ESTABLISHED BUSINESS

Luke Hyland - Luke Hyland Engineering Consultancy

Alan Meredith - Alan Meredith Studio

Joe Fitzpatrick - Fitz Hurleys

Sharon Leavy - Sharon Leavy College of Hair & Beauty

Gary Cobbe - Irish Polymer Extrusions Limited

David Finn - The Parlour