Professional Mechanical Solutions has seen rapid growth since its inception less than three years ago. Building Ireland was able to catch up with co-founder Tom Clifford to learn more about the Limerick-based firm.
Set-up under three years ago, Professional Mechanical Solutions has managed to hit the ground running and make the most of the busy times their experiencing right now down in Ballyneety, Co Limerick.
Limerick man Jonathan McCarthy and Tipperary native Tom Clifford co-founded the company together in 2014 and since that time its staff numbers have grown up to 35 members, with business now as good as it has ever been.
Tom was able to take time from his increasingly busy schedule to talk to Building Ireland recently and tell us what the business is all about.
“We’re in Ballinagarde, Ballyneety, Co Limerick and the company was established in October 2014,” he explained.
“We have 35 staff at the moment and myself and Jonathan McCarthy are the two directors of the company and, basically, we’re a mechanical installation contracting company providing everything from heating, plumbing, Water services, ventilation, Air conditioning, gas and all renewable technology. Those are the services that we specialise in.”
Offering its clients such an array of services has been one of the keys to Professional Mechanical Solutions’ success to date and Tom explained that this particular line of work is something which both he and Jonathan have been immersed in for some time.
Before finding the company together, both men had worked in the mechanical installation trade and eventually took the decision to start up their own venture in the latter part of the economic downturn, which had stung the Irish Construction so badly from 2008 onwards.
“Jonathan had been a sole trader with another company and the two of us worked together on past projects and had been interested in setting up our own business,” Tom explained.
“After a while we just decided to go it alone and set-up this company in October 2014. It was at a time when we both felt that the construction industry was coming back in this country and we just decided to go for it.”
Fast-forward a couple of years and business is now booming to the point where the company is now juggling a handful of different projects at the present time.
While most of Professional Mechanical Solutions’ work is currently based in and around Limerick, they’ve been branching out to Dublin and Galway for their work as the demand continues to increase.
“We’ve been very busy lately. The last six months or so has seen a real turn around because when we first set-up it was tough enough, being honest, but we persevered,” Tom stated.
“I really think in this line of work a lot of it is about making contacts. We’ve done work in Galway, Cork and Dublin but a lot of our work is in the Limerick area and, as I said, right now we’re busy here.”
It seems the perseverance has paid off and 2017 has already seen the company complete number of different projects.
This past April saw Professional Mechanical Solutions finish off a Carebright community facility in Bruff, Co Limerick, which they had been occupied with for the best part of half a year.
“We just finished a project for Care Bright which is a purpose built community for people living with dementia in Bruff, Co Limerick. I believe it is the first of its kind in Ireland. ” said Tom.
“It’s a four-building residential unit fully heated using air to water technology and also includes a café, gym, hydro therapy room, spa and full commercial kitchen. The project started for us in September 2016 and we just finished it in April gone past, so it was great to get it completed on schedule.”
As for some of the work on Professional Mechanical Solutions’ books at the minute, Tom revealed that much of it is education related.
Right now the company are working on schools in Co Clare, Co Tipperary and Co Limerick and its co-director gets the feeling, and also hopes, that there are similar projects to come down the line.
“Right now we’re doing work on St Patrick’s Comprehensive in Shannon, Co Clare and Borrisokane Community College in Co Tipperary, Hazelwood college in Dromcollogher Co. Limerick so we are keeping busy.
“When you’re at it there’s always more to follow and hopefully there will be for us into next year.”
He continued: “A lot of our work would be for companies like Conack Construction, LM Keating and Pinnacle Construction. We mostly deal with the contractor and we’re glad that they’ve chosen us for their projects.”
So why have Professional Mechanical Solutions’ clients continually chosen them first over the past three years?
Tom feels a lot of it has to do with the service that the company provides, as well as the attractive prices they offer which makes it hard for other companies to compete.
“We offer a good service and we’re obviously competitive in our quotations as well,” he stated.
“As a young enough company we probably don’t have to worry about overheads in the way the some of our competitors do.”
He added: “Another reason why we’re getting the repeat business from clients is because we’re very efficient on site and that counts for a lot.”
Now well into the second half of 2017, the aims remain the same for the company.
Less than three years in, Tom and Jonathan seem to be very much on the right path of creating a successful business and if things continue as they are then expansion could well be down the line in years to come.
“We’re pricing work right now and negotiating a few potential jobs as well. We are constantly tendering for jobs, so the hope for now is to just keep doing what we’re doing and keep getting busier and busier,” Tom concluded.
Professional Mechanical Solutions
Ballinagarde,
Ballyneety,
Co Limerick
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, August 2017, Vol 3 No 7
Professional Mechanical Solutions
