Ambassador’s Galway visit underlines benefit of increased co-operation

The British Ambassador paid a surprise visit to a thriving Galway city business that epitomised the ever-evolving trade links between here and the UK. 

Ambassador Dominick Chilcott was in Galway for an event in NUIG and wanted to meet some of the interesting companies based in Galway that are working with the UK Trade and Investment Dept (UKTI) – and the British Embassy suggested Meterlogix.

Meterlogix, based at Eyre House in Eyre Square in the heart of Galway, is an energy monitoring and management company which helps businesses reduce their power usage, and so save money.

“I was a bit surprised when the Embassy asked me to meet the Ambassador, but delighted to welcome him to our offices,” admitted Ollie Walsh, Managing Director of Meterlogix.

“Initially I had assumed it would be a quick photo opportunity, but he stayed for an hour and we had a good conversation about opportunities for Irish companies in the UK and UKTI supports available for them.”

Meterlogix has designed an energy monitoring system that is cost effective and sustainable for business today.

They survey, price, install and maintain both web-servers and hardware for the duration of a contract. Their equipment uses a unique protocol that permits connection to existing business networks without any requirement to involve third parties.

They launched their UK office in Sheffield earlier this year and have had several meetings with the Embassy since then.

“Every new company needs support and advice, regardless of the company’s existing experience, and at Meterlogix, we are happy to listen to all the advice offered to us.

“We have had meetings with Galway City and County Enterprise Board, we are a HPSU Client with Enterprise Ireland and have had initial conversations with InterTrade Ireland on setting up in UK and the North, but we have found the UKTI services complement what we are receiving here.

“Enterprise Ireland are helping us with introductions in Britain, UKTI are helping with additional introductions, both organisations let us use their facilities for meetings, so where Enterprise Ireland don’t have an office, we can use UKTI offices. Being able to organise a meeting in either offices lends weight to our business,” said Mr Walsh.

“UKTI is very interested in helping Irish businesses develop and grow. As we see it, our two economies are very closely linked so what is good for the Irish economy is generally good for the UK economy,” added Ambassador Chilcott.