UK: Tom Walsh, the chief executive and co-founder of aparthotel company Staycity, has won the International Entrepreneur of the Year award hosted by EY Ireland.
Walsh co-founded Staycity with his brother Ger Walsh in 2003. Since then, the company has grown to 5,300 apartments across 32 locations in Europe.
Earlier this year, Staycity reported a record turnover of more than €200 million – the first time it had reached this figure in a trading year. At the time, turnover for 2023 was on target to reach €230 million.
By 2028 the company’s development pipeline will take it to over 15,000 apartments, including its debut in Portugal.
On accepting his award, Walsh said he was “grateful and happy for [his] team for the recognition”.
“I think if we really stick to the knitting, keep those principles really at the fronts of our minds, people will want to do business with us, and that’s what we’ve been finding,” he said.
EY said the Staycity Group, which operates under the Staycity and Wilde Aparthotels brands, has “grown to become one of Europe’s leading aparthotel operators”.
The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is a global recognition programme that is run in 145 cities in more than 60 countries. Currently in its 26th year, nominees in the Ireland programme for the international entrepreneur category are “global players” that operate in multiple markets, and can be headquartered in Ireland or overseas.
