Farrell Furniture in Ardee winner of Irish business design challenge 2023

Farrell Furniture in Ardee has been named a winner in the Irish business design challenge 2023. The Ardee business is winner of the Medium Category.

The winners of Design & Crafts Council Ireland’s Irish Business Design Challenge 2023 (IBDC) were announced on Thursday morning at an awards ceremony in Tangent, Trinity College Dublin by Neale Richmond, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with special responsibility for Employment Affairs and Retail Business; and at the Department of Social Protection.

The three category winners, micro, small and medium, will each receive a prize of €15,000. Three runners-up prizes of €2,000 each were also awarded, and two entries were highly commended by judges.

Established in the early 1960s and operating from Ardee in County Louth, and with a presence in the UK, Farrell Furniture are specialist suppliers of furniture and fit-out services to the commercial office, rental and residential sectors.

This award is for a highly significant project which partnered with the OPW and the Atlantic Technical University to re-imagine and refurbish the Arthur Edwards-designed Crannac Chair which has been widely used in public sector offices for over forty years.

The project reverse engineered this iconic staple of public offices, bringing new life to these chairs while safeguarding their design heritage for future generations. This project was a practical demonstration of true circularity, to significantly lengthen the service life of these chairs at scale and prevent their destruction and entry into the waste stream.

The runners-up in the Medium Category were the Wren Urban Nest Hotel in Dublin.

Now in its third year, the Irish Business Design Challenge from Design & Crafts Council Ireland supports companies applying design thinking to future-proof their business and support customer needs. This year’s challenge focused on companies that have used design thinking in their business by making them more sustainable and efficient.

107 businesses entered this year’s Design & Crafts Council Ireland Irish Business Design Challenge, 44 of whom were shortlisted. The Irish Business Design Challenge is focused on raising awareness of the importance of incorporating design and sustainability into business strategy, and the benefits it brings to those businesses and the wider Irish economy and society.

Speaking at the awards, Minister Richmond said: "Programmes such as the Irish Business Design Challenge shine a light on the innate creativity and innovation of Irish MSMEs. The last few years have taught businesses to be flexible and adapt quickly, which has been proven through this year’s Irish Business Design Challenge winners.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank DCCI for their commitment to championing Irish design and the entrants for proving that smaller businesses can do big things when given the platform."

Suzy O’Keefe, Head of Digital & Communications at Design & Crafts Council Ireland said: "Each of these companies highlighted a deep understanding of how design thinking can be used to increase a business’s efficiency and the impact this can have on an economic and environmental level.

"It is incredible to see the ingenuity and innovation behind some of Ireland’s MSMEs and it makes us very hopeful for the future of both Irish businesses and Irish design."

Tom Watts, Head of Design at Design & Crafts Council Ireland said: "It is an honour to be able to recognise these companies for the amazing work they have done to transform their businesses into such models of sustainable and circular design.

"The outcome of this challenge is that six companies have been funded in furthering their commitment to these principles, raising the bar and creating a new benchmark. Support like this will encourage these companies to consider themselves as thought leaders and design thinkers, and that is a great thing to be a part of."