Six ŠKODA employees from across Ireland have been selected to represent Ireland at the international finals of the ŠKODA Challenge in Barcelona next year, having battled it out at the Irish National Final earlier this month.

Team ŠKODA Ireland will now compete against 35 countries at the International Finals, which are in their eighth year. Ireland will be represented by Paul Bruton and Marc Gorman from Cork, along with Darragh Smith from Cavan, Robbie Matthews from Naas, Eoghan Watson from Dublin and David Mullane from Galway.

The ŠKODA Challenge has become a benchmark for measuring the qualities of the best employees in the global ŠKODA network and Ireland will be represented in six different categoriesin Barcelona. These will be; Parts & Accessory Sales Person; Service Advisor; Service Technician; Sales Consultant, Diagnostic Technician and new for 2017, Sales Manager.

Paul Bruton is a Diagnostic Technician with over 22 years’ experience at Noel Deasy ŠKODA in Cork. This is the second year that Paul has won, having won his category last year. Also from Noel Deasy ŠKODA, this was Marc Gorman’s first time entering the competition and he won the Sales Consultant Category.

David Mullane, of Monaghan and Sons, won the Service Advisor category for the second time having previously been successful in 2014. Another second time winner was Darragh Smith who won the Parts & Accessory Salesperson category. Darragh works at ŠKODA, Cavan.

This is the first year that a Sales Manager category has been included in the national final and Robbie Matthews from Western Motors ŠKODA is the inaugural winner. Robbie joined Western Motors in November 2007 and became ŠKODA brand manager in October 2012.

Eoghan Watson started his career in Crash Repairs before commencing his motor technicians’ apprenticeship in, 2006.  He joined Annesley Williams in 2013 as a Service Technician.

Commenting on the results of the ŠKODA Challenge, John Donegan, Brand Director at ŠKODA Ireland, said, “We are delighted to announce the official line-up for Team ŠKODA Ireland that will be going forward to represent the country at the international ŠKODA Challenge finals in Barcelona next year. Paul, Robbie, Marc, Darragh, Eoghan and David are extremely accomplished professionals in their fields and we wish them the very best of luck in the finals. We have high hopes that Team ŠKODA Ireland can claim the number one spot in 2018.”