Business Plus – Issue 1 2026

Summary

EUR 4.95 buys 100 pages of Ireland's first business magazine of 2026: luxury florist Joeanna Caffrey, owner of five eponymous boutiques, tells Niamh Donnelly how she grows a flower business in a country where retail margins are perpetually under pressure. The February issue of Business Plus also tackles the EU-Mercosur deal's threat to Irish farmers and the hair-restoration boom.

Caffrey's cover interview anchors a package that includes Gavan Reilly on the burgeoning Ireland-China relationship following Taoiseach Micheal Martin's trip (P17), Ian Dodson of AICertified on the AI education gap he spotted in the market (P19), and Paul O'Donoghue on why the EU-Mercosur deal still has no consensus (P29). Eva Pau, TV chef and managing director of Asia Market, talks family business at P23. The Cyber Security Survey (P55) gathers Ireland's leading advisers to assess the threats facing businesses. Shane O'Donoghue tests the new Kia EV5 SUV at P94. Regular columns include Brid Horan, chair of Nephin Energy, in the Executive Chair Q&A at P07.

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Story / Features

P14 · Blooming Lovely
Joeanna Caffrey, owner of five luxury florist boutiques, speaks with Niamh Donnelly about expansion, entrepreneurship and the operational realities of a flower business in Ireland. Any retailer who has managed multiple locations will recognise the supply-chain tension she describes between freshness targets and cost control.

P08 · Creating Order
How Intelligent Enterprises is changing data consolidation. The feature profiles a company using AI to unify fragmented business data and gives CIOs a concrete architecture model to evaluate against their own stack.

P17 · Politics
Gavan Reilly on the burgeoning relationship between Ireland and China, filed after travelling with Taoiseach Micheal Martin. The piece offers corporate strategists a rare on-the-ground read of what Chinese investment signals mean for Irish exporters.

P19 · Start Me Up
George Morahan interviews Ian Dodson, founder and CEO of CertifiedAI (AICertified). Dodson explains the gap he saw in the AI education market and why he calls the current shift a new "Industrial Revolution." HR directors building internal AI literacy programmes should study his certification model.

P23 · Hungry Work
Jordan Mooney speaks with Eva Pau, TV chef and managing director of Asia Market — described as Ireland's most popular Asian food shop. Pau traces the origins of her family business and her decision to step fully into the MD role. Grocers looking to differentiate on specialty lines will find her sourcing playbook instructive.

P29 · Feature
Paul O'Donoghue on the controversial EU-Mercosur deal and what it means for Irish farmers and food businesses. The piece captures the split between agri-exporters who want market access and farmers who fear a flood of South American beef.

P55 · Cyber Security Survey
Ireland's leading advisers assess the ever-changing threats to businesses. CISOs should benchmark their own risk frameworks against the consensus view captured here.

▸ Regulars

P07 · Executive Chair
Brid Horan, chair of Nephin Energy, non-executive director of PM Group and Insurance Ireland, and former deputy CEO of ESB, on her career from trainee actuary at Irish Life to chancellor of DCU. Her pull quote — "Don't take things personally. While decisions may affect you, they're probably not mainly about you" — is worth the page turn.

P22 · Business
Nick Mulcahy on the surging popularity of vapes and what the regulatory response means for Irish retailers.

P27 · In the Lead
Brian McDonald, director of Bay Advisory, on his leadership style and the discipline of running a boutique advisory firm.

P94 · Electrifying
Shane O'Donoghue tests the Kia EV5 SUV and rates its real-world range, interior quality and pricing against the increasingly crowded electric family-car segment.

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Editor's Take

Issue 1 of the year comes in at a lean 100 pages compared with the 148-page Issue 2, and it shows — the Cyber Security Survey is strong but occupies disproportionate space, and some regular columns feel truncated. The Joeanna Caffrey cover works because she is a genuine entrepreneur with a tangible business, not a generic CEO profile. The Mercosur feature is the journalistic highlight: Paul O'Donoghue gives both sides of the argument without false balance. Weakest element is the vapes piece, which reads like a wire-service brief. Best for Irish SME owners, retail entrepreneurs and anyone tracking trade policy. The subscription pitch (EUR 40 print-plus-digital) is fair value for four issues a year.

Strengths
• Caffrey cover interview is concrete and operational
• Mercosur feature delivers genuine analytical value
• Cyber Security Survey with actionable adviser input

Weaknesses
• Vapes piece lacks depth and original reporting
• 100 pages feels thin against the EUR 4.95 cover price

Verdict: Recommended — Buy for the Mercosur analysis and the Cyber Security Survey; skip if you need the breadth of a full-sized issue.