WoodCo are finalists in both the Manufacturing and the Innovation Awards 2023.
WoodCo Energy was nominated for both the manufacturing and innovation awards at the SFA Small Business Awards 2023. WoodCo have heavily invested in R&D since its foundation and manufacture biomass boilers in Tipperary and ship worldwide.
Being a finalist at the SFA Awards is a huge honour and highlights the hard work and determination of the entire WoodCo and SolarCo team.
Manufacturing Expertise
Woodco has diversified its offerings since its foundation. Recognising the need for renewable and carbon neutral technologies, Woodco’s founders designed and developed the first wood pellet boilers in Ireland in the early 2000’s, to date we have supplied over 5,000 boilers worldwide, to markets including USA, Canada, UK, Europe and New Zealand. These boilers are all designed, manufactured and assembled at our factory and offices in Tipperary. From the initial wood pellet boilers, Woodco now produce the latest in state of the art technology which includes, i-Gen Controller for smart control and monitoring, automatic cleaning, 94% efficiency, Lambda Control, WiFi for remote control and diagnostics.
Woodco is now manufacturing, installing and maintaining biomass boilers in schools, care homes, hotels and farms across Ireland and Europe. Woodco have most recently manufactured and supplied biomass boilers for two hotels in Portugal and in France. It has won a contract and supplied a biomass Eco-Cabin to St. Columbas school in Glenties, Co. Donegal and Maryfield College in Drumcondra, Dublin for the Department of Education, as part of the Pathfinder Programme. The Pathfinder Programme is the first steps in the Department of Education’s journey in de-carbonising over 4000 schools in Ireland.
All Woodco EcoCabins are manufactured at its plant in Tipperary, and these are a fully plug n play plant room manufactured off site and delivered to schools, hotels and care homes. They have been recognised in the past as ‘Green Product of the Year’ in 2014 and are a core product in our offering.
Our factory is approved ISO 9001 quality certification. All our products are tested to European EN303-5 standards and at SZU Test, EU Laboratory in Czech Republic. We use top quality Irish suppliers, such as Global Steel Wexford, SMF Portlaw, ELC Waterford, Shannon Coil Springs and Alpha Drives Portlaoise.
We are proud that all our products are 100% Irish. All our new products have next generation Woodco iCloud for remote access, control, and diagnostics by the Woodco team.
We have invested significantly in research and development in the last 20 years, and this has allowed us to diversify our business offerings. We have also invested heavily in our team and continue to recruit talented likeminded individuals.
Innovation Expertise
We have always prided ourselves on innovation and our late Director Declan Crosse, headed up the R&D function within the company. Since Declan’s passing in August 2022, Woodco has recruited James Bourke to join Alex Sidorov and Rian O’Dea in the R&D department. James has 15 years’ experience in biomass heating having previously worked for the company as a biomass service technician before leaving in 2017. His return has been a welcome addition to the R&D team and his first task on joining in August 2022 was to have the Woodco wood pellet Cooker (Tri-Star) tested and approved to EU standards at the EU lab SZU Test.
Woodco is an outlier in that most biomass boiler manufacturers operate in central Europe e.g. Austria, Germany, Italy and the Baltic states. Woodco has leveraged its expertise and pedigree from its origins in supplying solid fuel back boilers and oil boilers in the early 70’s and 80’sto a modern company concentrating solely on renewable energy and products to combat climate change.
Woodco are investing significantly in research in sanitation and in partnership with the European Space Agency. Woodco is dedicated to creating innovative environmental technology that positively affects our world’s population and its climate. Through the creation of Biochar (which is a carbon sequestration product), our EMPYRE system takes biomass waste/faecal sludge and turns it into a valuable product, while helping our environment. With multiple awards received for the EMPYRE system, we are furthering our research into space technology to create a system that will utilise the development of IOT technology. This demonstration project is underway in south Africa. Woodco aims to commercialise and manufacture these units in late 2024. They are seen as a game changing technology in developing markets.
Business Connect
This is the SFA flagship event on 8 February 2023 at the Aviva Stadium. Business Connect gives delegates a window into the decision making and purchasing processes of Ireland’s leading companies. This exciting marketplace event is focused on shining a light on Ireland’s unique ecosystem where small and large firms often compete-for contracts, talent, government, and media attention – but they also thrive from each other.
There will be an exhibition which will host the best in small business who are the finalists in the SFA National Small Business Awards 2023 along with awards supporters, agencies and exhibitors.
Minister of State for Public Procurement, Ossian Smyth TD will also address this event to highlight the importance of SMEs participation in the public procurement process and speak about reforming the public procurement process in 2023 with updated guidance to assist SMEs with the public procurement process and a new eTenders platform.
WoodCo are really looking forward to exhibit at Business Connect in February!
Gala Awards Evening
The SFA Small Firms Award winners will be announced on the night of Thursday 9th March 2023.
WoodCo have previously been finalists in the SFA Small Firms Awards and last picked up a trophy as winner in 2020 as ‘Innovator of the Year’.
