Fermoy entrepreneur Brian boxing clever as he strives for global glory in Monaco

THE FERMOY gentleman who started just one of Europe’s biggest privately-owned packaging businesses that now offers a multi-million Euro yearly turnover is the jogging to be crowned the initially ever Irish EY Earth Entrepreneur of the Calendar year.

Last November Brian O’Sullivan, owner and chairman of Zeus Packaging, beat a document amount of finalists to win the prestigious Irish EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

This 7 days, Mr O’Sullivan is in Monaco exactly where he is going head-to-head from 54 other organization leaders from throughout the globe for the right to be topped the 2022 Earth EY Entrepreneur of the Yr.

Speaking on Newstalk’s Breakfast Enterprise slot on Wednesday morning from Monaco Mr O’Sullivan claimed even though level of competition did not have a money reward it was even now “the most sturdy business prize in the world”.

“It will come with the kudos of getting the World Entrepreneur of the 12 months, which in the business environment carries a enormous statement,” mentioned Mr O’Sullivan.

“An Irish firm has by no means won it ahead of, so you can picture what it would be like to deliver it back house to Ireland,” he extra.

Mr O’Sullivan founded Zeus in 1998 and regardless of the issues of economic downturn and far more not too long ago the Covid pandemic, has overseen the expansion of the firm into a worldwide chief in its area with a turnover of €300 million and a workforce of 670 staff working in much more than two-dozen nations around the world.

His strategy because setting up Zeus has been one of expansion, with acquisitions financed by lender credit rating fairly than exterior investment.

Early previous 12 months Zeus concluded a €40 million, two-calendar year programme of strategic as perfectly as the subsequent acquisition of Limerick Packaging in October.

Must Mr O’Sullivan acquire the entire world EY title it would major off what has been a different momentous week for Zeus, which has just accomplished the acquisition or British organizations BoxMart and Swanline in a offer valued at a lot more than €25million.

Mr O’Sullivan explained both of those businesses as “high-conclude sustainable and innovative” functions.

“That is what we (Zeus) are heading to and what we have been striving to push for the earlier 10-15 several years,” mentioned Mr O’Sullivan.

Addressing the debate about the use of compostable espresso cups, Mr O’Sullivan claimed there has been a ton of misconceptions about them and other styles of packaging.

“There has been compostable or degradable packing for many years and Zeus has led the way in that. The biggest difficulty we have is that the shopper has not been informed the entire story on what can happen with good waste manage of packing,” mentioned Mr O’Sullivan.

Giving an insight into the ongoing achievement of his corporation, Mr O’Sullivan claimed that when he established Zeus it experienced just just one merchandise and even again then his guiding ethos was to reduce as much of the packaging as achievable.

“People have explained to me on quite a few instances ‘surely that is poor for small business if you are a packaging company’. My answer has constantly been certainly not,” mentioned Mr O’Sullivan.

“The much more we can clientele minimize packing, the superior it is for my organization. This is mainly because consumers see the price that we give and remain with us,” he additional.