Buying guaranteed Irish products is now more important than ever. Time Point is delighted to announce that we are now a proud member of Guaranteed Irish! The symbol is awarded to businesses that create quality jobs, contribute to local communities, and are committed to Irish provenance. Time Point is proudly passionate about our Irish heritage, and so we are now delighted to join over 1500 Guaranteed Irish members!
Time Point
We are a Dublin based software company with over 25 years of experience successfully meeting the needs of over 2,500 customers from a wide range of industries. Here at Time Point, we provide innovative software services to increase your businesses’ efficiencies, reduce admin times, streamline processes and connect your entire business. We create a partnership with all our customers to ensure that we can continuously meet their needs.
Guaranteed Irish
Guaranteed Irish is a not-for-profit business membership organisation representing businesses in Ireland since 1974. Their members span all sectors including pharmaceutical, healthcare, technology, construction, energy, professional services, tourism, food, drink, art, design, retail and more. Over four decades, the Guaranteed Irish symbol has become one of the most recognised symbols in the country. In the mid-1970s the Irish Goods Council rolled out a Buy Irish initiative with a view to encouraging people to shop locally. The Guaranteed Irish symbol started appearing on everything from Irish consumer products to Irish hand cream.
Brid O’Connell, CEO of Guaranteed Irish says buying Irish has rarely mattered as much to Irish consumers as it does now. Consumers are now looking to buy and support local businesses. “I think people are starting to realise more and more that when you shop locally, you are killing so many birds with the one stone. You are supporting jobs and doing less damage to the environment and you are helping the local community and giving yourself a real feel-good factor too.”
O’Connell has stated that as many as 2/3 of Irish consumers have chosen to shop with Irish small businesses to support them through the Covid-19 crisis. She also states to research pre-Covid-19 92% of people associated buying locally with sustainability, while 53% of shoppers here reckon they have done more shopping with Irish companies since pre-crisis times, according to O’Connell. “The crisis has focused the minds of people in Ireland, and I think so many of them really want to do what they can to help struggling businesses and to support the local economy. If we all bought one gift from here instead of Amazon, it will have the effect of saving jobs”.
Benefits of Working with Local Businesses
O’Connell constantly highlights the benefits of shopping locally and says that every €100 spent in Ireland can be worth as much as €500 to the local economy as the money is circulated widely closer to home rather than being sucked up in another jurisdiction. She also stresses that contrary to what many people think prices for products on Irish sites are “competitive with overseas products, save for overseas businesses that can sometimes be unsustainable and unethical. Every nation in the world acknowledges that Irish is a premium label; it’s a shame we don’t value it ourselves enough!”
Source: Conor Pope, 2020, “The Big G can help buy our way out of this crisis”, The Irish Times
