With an order book that’s almost full for the 2025 calendar year, Semiton Ltd. is an industry-leading, family-run general building and contracting company that continues to go from strength to strength. Building Ireland touched base with director Niall Murphy for an update on this exceptional County Tipperary headquartered operation.
The fantastic portfolio of projects successfully delivered by Semiton across Munster and sometimes beyond for coming up on half a century speaks for itself. Continuing to set the standards in construction, the Clonmel-based company – established by Sean Murphy in 1979 – enjoyed a busy 2024 and the signs are extremely encouraging heading into ’25.
So busy is the Semiton team that there’s scope for further growth, although a lack of suitable labour is holding them back a little in this regard. “We’re very busy at the moment and have a very healthy order book ahead of us for 2025,” confirms Niall Murphy, who took over the running of the business from his brother Darren.
The business has been restructured recently and Niall is looking forward to continuing to service all sectors of the industry – commercial, industrial, residential, pharma, healthcare, civils, etc. – with the tried and trusted high-quality building solutions for which Semiton are renowned.
One of the key projects in progress at the time of writing was a €3m fit out job at the Dairygold Food Ingredients factory in Mitchelstown, County Cork. “That’s a very nice project for a repeat client,” says Niall. “We have been onsite there since the middle of last summer and will be finished up by the end of February.
“It’s a full fit out of the old cheese plant including laboratories, R&D area, toilets, storage area, etc.”
As with every project undertaken, this one has received the full Semiton attention to detail, with a large team on hand daily to ensure quality workmanship and total client satisfaction. “We didn’t do any of the mechanical and electrical on that one, but there would have been 20 to 30 lads there for the duration of that project,” Niall confirms.
“A lot of our work is repeat business. For example, we’re also in Merch full-time and are currently doing a new carpark for them as well as a few other bits and pieces.”
Niall and his trusty team of builders are also currently working on a couple of residential refurbishments – one in Bantry and another in Clonmel (the refurb of an old house and the gutting and rebuilding of an adjoining house to transform it into apartments).
Meanwhile, there is also work scheduled at Danone in Wexford, which will commence in March ahead of the next shutdown there in April, before ramping up.
Other recent developments for this versatile and highly-regarded Tipperary contractor included a series of multiunit social housing developments across the county for Tipperary County Council, including sites in Mullinahone, Clonmel and Donohill near Tipp town.
Although distance is never an issue, Niall agrees that ideally the closer the work is to home the better – a sentiment shared by everybody in construction: “We have a full-time team of 20 at the minute and we cover virtually every sector of the industry. Of course you try to keep it as local as you can but at the same time you have to go to wherever your clients need you. We’ll be going down to Wexford in March and we’ll go wherever the work is.
“We’ve been up as far as Monaghan, back in the day. I vividly remember driving my dad up to Grove Turkeys for a meeting many years ago. We’ve also been up in Dublin, where we did work for Takeda in Grange Castle amongst others. If we can stay local we will but you can’t always do that in construction, unfortunately.”
Semiton Ltd. boasts a first class safety record, which has been recognised by the Construction Industry Federation with several achievements and awards over the years including Safe T-cert. Safety is treated as an unconditional priority and is one of the many reasons why the company’s reputation for excellence precedes them, leading to a steady volume of repeat work and also new clients through positive word of mouth.
“We can’t complain. We have enough work ahead of us for 2025 and we are on the lookout for a good project manager. Believe it or not, we went through three PMs on that latest Dairygold job and are actively seeking someone reliable.”
Going forward, the emphasis at Semiton will remain very much on providing clients with a level of service they can count on time and time again. Building with care, passion, precision and professionalism has been the Semiton way for 46 years and counting and – in an oftentimes uncertain world – one certainty is that this is never going to change!
Semiton Ltd.,
Dungarvan Road,
Clonmel,
County Tipperary.
Tel: 052 23111.
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.semiton.com
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, May 2025, Vol 11 No 5
