British Ambassador calls on energy monitoring & management company in Galway

Recently, Dominick Chilcott, the British Ambassador to Ireland, paid a visit to Meterlogix in Galway, the nearest city to the Read-out Signpost. Meterlogix are an energy monitoring and management company who help businesses reduce their power usage, and so save money.

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

‘I was a bit surprised when the Embassy asked me to meet the Ambassador!’ says Ollie Walsh, Managing Director of Meterlogix, ‘but delighted to welcome him to our offices. 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 launched their British 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’ claims Walsh, ‘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.’

According to Ambassador Chilcott, ‘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’