A Castlebar fibre optics company set up less than twelve months ago and which already employs 20 full time staff, was presented with the “Company of the year” award by Mayo County Enterprise Board on Thursday last.  Managing Director of Fibrepulse Limited, Mr. Rory Casey, received this award at a presentation ceremony in Breaffy House Hotel, from Mr. Des Mahon, Mayo County Manager and Chairman, Mayo County Enterprise Board.

Fibrepulse LTD., based at Market Sq., Castlebar, specialises in the design and manufactures of fibre optic interconnect products, servicing the high-end telecommunications market worldwide.  The company, which is currently undergoing a major extension of its premises, has already secured a wide range of blue chip customers throughout mainland Europe, in Scandinavia, in the United States and in Japan.  The venture is the brainchild of Castlebar man, Rory Casey, originally from Roscommon, and his co-Director Shane Scott, originally from Mountmellick, both of whom have extensive experience in the fibre optics industry.  Rory lays claim to a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has production, general management, sales and marketing experience in the industry, while Shane is a Materials engineer who previously worked as fibre optic specialist with a number of major companies.  As a company supported by the Mayo County Enterprise Board, Fibrepulse Ltd., also participated in a management development programme also run by the board.

Congratulating Fibrepulse on their fine achievement, the County Manager Mr. Des Mahon stated: “This is a young company which as made spectacular progress in a very short space of time. Since its inception it has developed a range of high technology products for the fibre optics interconnect sector, obtaining patents on many of them.

“It has developed export markets worldwide with the acknowledged market leaders in the industry, and most significantly, it has created in excess of 20 new full-time jobs in the process.  This success was due to the dynamic leadership of the company’s founding directors Rory Casey and Shane Scott, and was a tribute also to the team they had assembled around them” said Mr.Mahon, adding that the Mayo County enterprise Board had been pleased to support Fibrepulse in the critical start-up stage by providing them with employment grants.

He was not surprised that Mr. Casey had made such a success of the enterprise considering the lineage he came from, he added. “Rory’s grandfather was the largest business employer in my home town of Roscommon and his father, Gerard, then came to Castlebar where he managed the very successful “Caseys Motors” business. His uncle Jimmy Murray Captained the Roscommon team to win the 1993/1994 All Ireland so, Rory has a hard act to follow and I have no doubt he will do so successfully”, he said.

Mr. Frank Fullard, Chief Executive Officer, Mayo County Enterprise Board, stated that the Fibrepulse enterprise represented all that was positive in small indigenous Irish industry.  It had a management team with the right mix of technical marketing and management skills, a dedicated and committed workforce and a focus on high technology products, which are in demand on a worldwide basis.  The company had already made spectacular progress in under a year, moving from a greenfield situation to one where it now employed over twenty people and was supplying products to export markets worldwide.  He had no doubt that Fibrepulse would grow even further in future years and would, in time, become a major employer in the county.

Fibrepulse managing director Mr. Rory Casey, said that the presentation of the award marked a very proud day for him and his co-director, as just 12 months previously, they both had, as men with families taken a risk to give up secure comfortable jobs.

“To leave all of that was a huge decision and I would like to thank my wife, Maria, my parents, Ger. and Sue, my brother, Ger, all of whom supported me the whole way and provided business advice. It has been a hard graft and we had knocks along the way, but we always managed to hold on to our twenty staff.  We have been very specific in our marketing efforts, only targeting the industry leaders but we would not have been able to achieve these results without the help of the Mayo County Enterprise Board, and I wish to thank specially Frank Fullard and Padraig McDermott”.  The training courses provided by the board had also proved invaluable, especially the ongoing advice, which was always available at the end of a telephone line, said Rory.

Initial three-year targets set out by Fibrepulse were achieved in the space of three months and the company also secured the quality IS09001 award during the year.  “We know our market well and we’re operating in a fast growing market sector and with the help of our super, committed staff, we look forward to growing even further. We still have a long way to go but we are already moving into design work with our elite customers and we look forward to the new challenges ahead.  “We’re very proud of our selection as ‘Enterprise Company of the Year’ and we hope that Mayo County Enterprise Board will continue to be proud of us” concluded Rory.