Get to know the great people at Eolas!

In each newsletter, we profile a different team member so that you get to know the great people behind our great services.

Q How did you start to build your international network? – While we had basic internet capability in 2000, we didn’t have Facebook or other such tools so we relied on the tried and trusted telephone to recruit internationally. Irish people tend to turn up a myriad of places so we initially telephoned Irish bars in the likes of Tanzania to connect with Irish people that were willing to help us in recruiting locals to become our researchers locally. We even tried Irish embassies abroad and had the embassy driver’s wife as our researcher in Rome for the first couple of years! We are very proud that today we still have some of the original researchers who joined us 22 years ago working with us on monthly projects.

Q How has the company evolved over the years? – The focus of the business from day one has been on product quality by either directly measuring the quality of products in the marketplace using our researchers or retrieving products from the market to test product quality in laboratories.

 We then set up our sensory analysis division in 2002 as a quality assurance function and we now offer that service to numerous clients as well as our analytical testing laboratories which we set up in 2005. More recently we have successfully launched our global proficiency services and we have rebranded all of our sensory and analytical services under the ‘LabSens’ umbrella which is a new division of Eolas.

 Our consumer insights division initially focused on consumer research in the Irish market and we then went on to develop an international offering when in particular two of our clients started talking about product quality and its impact on consumers. We are really proud of how we have developed our international consumer research services and get great pleasure in receiving positive feedback from our clients on our innovative approach to engaging with global consumers using our bespoke app technology.

Q How has the company evolved over the years? – Personally, I was very proud to be nominated for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010, which was recognition for how much we had developed as a business and in particular the entrepreneurial ethos in the business. It is also extremely satisfying to win new business with large FMCG clients, against strong global competition with service offerings we have developed ourselves using our own technology developed by our internal teams.

Q what changes have you seen in your 20+ years in the industry – The biggest change across the areas we operate in are the technological developments which have led to opportunities for companies like Eolas to scale fast on a global stage and to succeed against larger less nimble competitors. We recognised at an early stage that by investing in technology, particularly mobile apps and client reporting dashboards, we could compete against any competitor and also offer innovative and unique services to our clients. If I look at our consumer division today, I can see consumers being recruited fresh for each project (we never use panel providers) by our in-house team in locations like Chile, China and UAE.

Q What next for Eolas? Further growth in clients and service offerings. We are constantly innovating and enhancing the range of services we offer across our 3 divisions. We are also investing further in technology to ensure we can get accurate data and business relevant insights to our clients as fast as possible. We are also delighted with our recent US acquisition and want to grow and develop the team and our offerings over there. We may also look at further strategic acquisitions to develop and grow our business

Finally, I would like to thank the team in Eolas who all played a major part in our success to date.