Based in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, Magan Construction is one of Ireland’s leading contractors, delivering leading retail fit-out, commercial, hospitality and medical projects to renowned clients nationwide. Building Ireland touched base with Managing Director Richard Crone to hear all about the company’s current projects and its plans moving forward.
Business has been thriving as of late for Magan Construction and the plan for Richard Crone and the team in Innova Business Park, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath is to try and keep things that way for the foreseeable.
Established since 2008, the company is a specialist contractor in turnkey fitout solutions for projects across the commercial, industrial, retail, hospitality, educational and health sectors.
It operates with 11 full-time staff, a team of subcontractors and five vans on the road which travel to projects across the country.
Building Ireland heard more from Richard Crone after catching up with the Managing Director of the business in the early part of what is set to be another busy summer.
“We’re extremely busy at the minute. From about October last year till February this year it was extremely quiet,” he outlined.
“We were putting it down to an election in Ireland and a Trump administration and people, you know, we do a lot in retail and industry, so they were extremely jittery and we felt it really bad.
“We’re back up and running though. We’re currently doing a refit on a Sketchers shoe shop in Swords and the nursing home world has exploded. We seem to be doing a lot of work there.
“So we have the Sketchers store in Swords and a lot of nursing homes on top of that. We’re doing demolition to provide access to nursing homes there, and we’re doing alterations within them.
“It just seems to be something that people are building, nursing homes.”
Magan Construction operates with a highly-skilled team of experts, meaning that there isn’t a retail or commercial project that it can’t deliver for a client.
Richard himself views the business as very much being a one-stop shop for all of the required fit-out needs that its clients have.
All of that considered, it’s no surprise to hear that the company is flourishing at this point in time with the projects coming thick and fast.
“We’re also in the middle of an Innovation Centre at the moment and that’s a big project, dividing up of an existing unit and mechanical, electrical design, all the general construction. That’s a big one,” said the Managing Director.
“We’re looking at a new retailer possibly coming into the country, building, going to High Street, which is very encouraging to happen. It’s brilliant to see someone new coming in, you know, with online the way it is. Online has been affecting our business, especially on the retail end of it.
“For Sketchers, we have a second fit out coming up in Blanchardstown, a re-fit, and it looks like they’re going to be building a new store in Letterkenny.
“The other thing that is after really getting busy is the pharma end of it, we’re looking at, we’re doing clean room work for two different Midland companies at the minute.
“And that had gone quiet for a long time, but now it’s gone mental. We do the full design right the way through to the handover on clean space and clean rooms.
“So we actually thought for a while that that end of the business was dead and then, overnight, it was mental.”
Since ‘Day One’, Magan Construction has offered a complete holistic approach to fit-out for both new and renovation projects, working alongside the client throughout each project to ensure their needs are not only met, but exceeded.
Needless to say, things are looking bright for the future for this Co Westmeath concern as it continues to deliver excellent work for its clientele on projects.
So, with that, the burning question is what has been the secret behind the success of the business over these past 17 years?
How has a small start-up grown into a thriving construction firm which holds an excellent reputation amongst its clients?
“We give them a turnkey element, they only need to contact us and we will look after everything; design, build, procurement. The likes of Sketchers would trust us, like at the minute we’re in a retail outlet which all the stock is still there. We’re very trusted.”
A leading shop-fitting and retail fit-out specialist, the expertise of Magan Construction in fit-outs ranges from retail, pharmaceutical, jewellery and fashion to office and medical solutions, as the evidence from its completed works demonstrates thus far.
The portfolio of the company is an impressive one and, according to Richard, the plan for the coming months and heading into next year is to expand it even further.
“We are looking into other avenues of business for the company. We’re looking to possibly break somewhat into the modular home end of things,” he said.
“And that’s driven by hopefully a planning permission change that may come in. So we want a manufacturing facility. It’d be a way of getting off the road at some point.”
As for plans for further expansion personnel-wise by the company, Richard concluded by saying: “Yeah, we are actively looking and we’ve already taken on a new design man for the office. The trick to get them and keep them.”
Magan Construction
Unit 1,
Innova Business Park,
Castlepollard,
Co. Westmeath
Tel: 044 966 2456
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.magan.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September, Vol 11 No 10
