The key business events happening this week

For your diary: Greencore results; SFA annual conference;UK GDP; Irish retail sales

MONDAY

Results: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Meetings: Glanbia egm and agm (Lyrath Estate Hotel, Co Kilkenny)

TUESDAY

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Results: Cranswick, UDG Healthcare, Greencore

Indicators: Euro zone composite, manufacturing and services PMI (May); UK public sector net borrowing (April); German GDP growth rate (Q1), composite, manufacturing and services PMI (May); US new home sales (April), manufacturing index (May)

Meetings: Active Retirement Ireland Trade and Tourism Show 2017 (RDS, Dublin)

WEDNESDAY

Results: Britvic, Frutarom, Guess, HP, Marks & Spencer, Samsonite, Tiffany,

Indicators: German consumer confidence (June); US mortgage applications (May), house price index (March), manufacturing PMI (May), home sales (April)

Meetings: Small Firms Association annual conference 2017 (RDS, Dublin); Future Health Summit (Citywest Convention Centre)

Not every Celtic Tiger is taboo – Gillian Maxwell has developed the everything-and-anything Tiger store into a 26-outlet chain in Ireland and will tell Wednesday's Small Firms Association (SFA) annual conference a little bit about her success.

Maxwell embodies many of the themes and challenges this year's conference aims to grapple with – particularly innovation and how modern businesses adapt to new models and ways of thinking.

"The story behind business is always very interesting and she is someone who has worked in large and small organisations; she had her own business with her mother and [then Tiger] with her husband so her range of experience is very interesting," says SFA acting director Linda Barry. "Tiger has exploded in all our consciences."

About 300 owner-managers are expected at the half-day annual event which will dissect the business environment for the forthcoming year. Other speakers will include Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O'Connor and women's rugby star Niamh Briggs.

“I don’t think you can have a conference in 2017 without talking about Brexit,” continues Ms Barry of the largest shadow overhanging the trading environment, although it is of varying relevance to smaller firms, many of which are not big exporters.

THURSDAY

Results: Wizz Air Holdings, Tate & Lyle, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bosch, Halfords

Indicators: UK GDP growth rate (Q1); mortgage approvals (April), business investment (Q1); US jobless claims (May)

Meetings: European Insurance Forum (Croke Park Conference Centre, Dublin); Atlantec Festival – tech and software development event (NUI Galway)

A year and a half since coming into effect, the regulatory framework of EU insurance companies – Solvency II – will take much of the focus at Thursday’s European Insurance Forum in Dublin.

The event, pulling together about 240 senior Irish and international managers and about 33 speakers, is ground zero for sector debate and there is no shortage of topics.

As well as Solvency II (which was 10 years in the making at a cost of about €4 billion) the effect of the low-interest rate environment, technological change and shifts in the geopolitical landscape will all find a home in the discussions.

As with other sectors, how European insurers and reinsurers passport their services in a post-Brexit world will be keenly debated. In the IFSC, numerous international companies sell products into other jurisdictions and this, as with other sectors, is expecting change from Britain's divorce negotiations.

"With the UK coming out of Europe, we don't know how it's all going to land at the moment. Will passport rights change?" says Kevin Thompson, chief executive at Insurance Ireland ahead of Thursday's event.

"There is an opportunity," he adds. "There is a debate now around what lessons can be learned from AIG and Lloyds [choosing not to select Ireland as a UK alternative] because companies in London will have to find a new European home."

Mr Thompson says that while expressions of interest have been filed with the Central Bank in that regard, details are for now. "We don't have clear visibility," he says.

FRIDAY

Results: Sun Pharma

Indicators: Irish retail sales (April); US GDP growth rate (Q1), composite and services PMI (May)

Meetings: Ireland eGovernment Awards and Summit on online service development (Dublin Castle).