The firm provides telecommunications applications quality and connectivity assurance solutions, that allow organizations to provide an excellent customer experience.

It proactively monitors toll, toll-free numbers, and WebRTC communications for audio quality and connectivity globally. The firm also has offices in Waterford, Romania, and India.

Its customer portfolio is highly diverse, including service providers, unified communications, financial services, travel, pharmaceutical, and retail sectors.

In December 2021, it announced the multi-million euro acquisition of Israeli real-time communications solutions developer testRTC, which was a huge advancement towards the next step for Spearline.

By integrating the testRTC technology with Spearline’s current testing capabilities, the company is now in a position where it can provide customers with a solution that no other vendor in the world can offer.

For the past eight years, Spearline has ranked in The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 — one of Ireland’s foremost technology award programmes.

The company is embedded in its local community and county. CEO and founder Kevin Buckley is a founding board member of the Ludgate Digital Hub in Skibbereen. It recently launched a graduate programme with 20% of places being assigned to those with neurodivergence.

Spearline is also committed to achieving a 40% female workforce by 2028 and is currently at 34%, well ahead of other technology companies.

Spearline is a customer-centric company and prides itself in placing its customers at the heart of everything that it does.

It carries out quarterly business reviews with each of its customers to gain feedback during these reviews.

The platform was originally developed in response to a customer need and today, it is constantly evolving to respond to, and meet customers’ needs and demands. The product development team is more focused as Spearline’s business growth strategy is derived from its customer needs.

Spearline CEO and co-founder Kevin Buckley said they were honoured to be a finalist in the Chamber’s Company of the Year Awards. “This award recognises our team’s hard work and efforts in growing and expanding the company over the past few years,” he said.

“Our recent acquisition of Callstats alongside our earlier acquisition of testRTC was a huge step forward for us and confirms Spearline’s position as the world leader in communication testing technologies I’m incredibly proud that we’re one of the largest employers in all of County Cork — and we plan to keep growing and expanding our company so we can meet customer and new market demand.”

Amarenco shows how a large global company can be built from Cork

Amarenco is a Cork firm with a national and international focus on balancing economy and ecology.

Founded in Cork in May 2013, the firm is now recognised as a global developer, financier, and operator of solar PV infrastructure and large-scale lithium-ion storage plants.

The company is Irish, but it is an international company with 232 employees from 27 countries. Thirty of its staff are based in its Cork offices.

Amarenco’s turnover has exceeded €100m through organic and inorganic development. It is especially proud of its €100m investment in Cork over the next two years building 112MW of solar farms across the county.

The company is invested worldwide and will build out 500MW per year of solar PV and storage and expects to deliver earnings of €67m in 2023. Amarenco is about to close a significant investment of €200m from an international fund to continue its high-growth strategy.

From its global founding base, it is now operating in 14 countries with main offices in Cork, Albi, Lyon, Paris, Dubai, Madrid, Vienna, Muscat and Singapore. Their clients include Decathlon (global rooftop deal of all of their stores), Coca-Cola, Electrolux, Etisalat, Nestle, McDonalds in Jordan and many others.

Amarenco is building two large-scale (100MW each) storage plants in France and expects to significantly grow its presence in this much-needed technology across the majority of their chosen markets.

In solar PV, it develops and invests in all forms of technologies — carports, large rooftops, greenhouses, floating solar and large ground-mounted plants such as those in Cork.

In recent years, Amarenco has further innovated. It has become a technology leader in new Agri-PV solutions where decarbonised energy can co-exist with horticulture and mainstream agriculture. They are developing hybrid and standalone storage solutions across global markets and piloting hydrogen solutions in four countries. They are also supporting research in Ireland and in France on solar/storage optimisation.

In the last three years, it has developed PV solutions in a further 11 countries from its original base of Ireland, France, and Oman. In Egypt, it developed a 1MW solar farm in Sharm-El-Sheikh with local partner Solarize so that the Cop27 conference in November could now boast that it would be powered by solar PV and by Amarenco Solarize.

Amarenco employs 27 nationalities across its 14 countries. They have a female/male ratio that is 39%/61%, well ahead of the international benchmark. All global conferences are conducted in English and French.

Over the past decade, Amarenco has shown how a large successful global company can be built from Cork. Amarenco’s Executive Chairman John Mullins said: “We are delighted and humbled that we have been chosen by the Cork Chamber as a finalist for Large Company of the Year.”

Grant Thornton proves professional services can locate outside the capital

Grant Thornton in Cork is a leading provider of professional services across audit, tax and advisory.

It is one of the largest professional services firms in Ireland, with more than 2,500 people providing services to public and private clients spanning multiple sectors and industries.

It operates in seven locations across Ireland, and has a presence in Bermuda, Gibraltar, and the Isle of Man.

The firm opened in Cork in 2013 with just four staff — the first large professional services firm to do so since the 1970s.

From day one, it has shown a determination to grow and expand. Over the past decade it has grown and now has a stream of 200 people across five service lines, the only office outside of Dublin to offer all five.

Grant Thornton make business more personal by investing in relationships. Clients choose the company, as the breadth of financial and business services they need are delivered innovatively and always to the highest standards. The firm says it is committed to its clients, its people and to growing the economy in Cork.

In 2020, due to continued growth, it moved to new premises at One Penrose Dock. The new office is located on the top floor overlooking the River Lee at Penrose Quay. Further growth is planned for 2023 to ensure it continues to meet the increase in requirements from its diverse and growing client base.

This investment has been seen as a huge endorsement of the city and its expansion into the former dockland areas.

The firm recently acquired control of Cork software company Valid8Me and its digital identity platform. It views the Valid8Me platform as complementary to a number of its service lines and specifically addresses the needs of clients.

Committed to its clients, Grant Thornton undertakes a formal process on the completion of an assignment seeking feedback on its performance. The process is administered by a third party and allows clients the opportunity to review their performance in a formal way.

Grant Thornton views its success in Cork as confirmation that professional services firms can thrive outside of Dublin. Its presence in Cork has led to other firms locating here.

The firm has also placed sustainability at the core of everything it does.

Among the initiatives taken to support sustainability across its offices, Grant Thornton’s Green Scene Committee has engaged in tree-planting, sustainable mobility for employees, and promotion of the bike-to-work scheme.

The Future of Work initiative incorporates sustainable working methods across all stages, and the introduction of sustainable coffee cups and coffee bean recycling have further supported a culture of responsibility in this area across the business.

Michael Nolan, a partner at Grant Thornton said: “We as a firm are delighted to be shortlisted in such a prestigious category. Our growth in Cork is based on our staff constantly providing best-in-class service to our local, national and international clients.”