Cover story: The market opens up

Adapting to the changing environment has had its upsides for some Irish tech firms

S andyford Industrial Estate isn’t exactly a place where one expects to find the leading minds in coffee technology. Even less so when that firm has a distinctly Italian name like Marco. The Dublin firm was founded in 1980 by Martin Coughlan, drawing its exotic name from a most Irish source.

For the bulk of the company’s existence, it barely dreamed of developing a market beyond these shores. Changes in communications technology opened ...