James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors Ltd celebrated fifteen years in business last February and in that time the Meath based company has earned a reputation which is the envy of many of their competitors.

When it comes to providing electrical services to companies and governing bodies throughout the country from public lighting to industrial and commercial installations, James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors Ltd has a proven track record of delivering a number of projects not just on time but ahead of schedule and within budget.

They provide a wide range of electrical maintenance and services. For instance, they have completed a number of commercial projects on both a design & build to a build only i.e. exclusive wedding venues, public lighting, shop fit-outs, service stations,  offices, bars and clubs, to name a few which included, general lighting, display lighting, flood lighting, emergency lighting, general power (sockets), fire alarms, I.T structured cabling and phone systems.

In addition, they have completed a number of industrial installations, i.e. machine installation, pharmaceutical, food-processing plants and sports arena and pitch lighting.

Further to this the company has amassed its self as a major player in the sports flood lighting industry due to it’s ability to deliver any flood lighting project big or small from start to finish. “We can from the turn of the sod for the cable trenches, to the flick of the switch to bring on the lights deliver a turn key project,” as James explains and his team have delivered and proven this over the years.

The company has come a long way since James Collins started out as a one man operation back in 2002. He then employed his mother Patricia to manage the bookwork. In doing so today, there are 15 employees on the payroll including Managing Director James’ wife, Angela, who is now the office manager and a further 30 people sub-contracted as needed. In seeing this growth Patricia has since retired leaving the office safe in the knowledge that it is in Angela’s good hands.

Their highly skilled and dedicated staff, under the leadership of Senior Contracts Manager Anthony Geraghty, boasts a vast experience in the electrical industry.

“After serving my time as an apprentice I went out on my own and took on an apprentice straight away,” James recalled in conversation with Building Ireland magazine. “I got in on a major pharmaceutical plant installation as a sub-contractor, took on a couple of more lads, and built from there.

“We also carry out a lot of work in the service station industry and the oil industry. In fact, we believe we’re only one of a few contractors in the country regulated by the National Oil Reserve Authority.”

From its vast experience, the team at James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors Ltd has designed as well as installed a number of installations depending on the customers’ needs.

All of their installations whether design and install or install only are installed to the current E.T.C.I Regulations.

As a member of the Register of Electrical Contractors of Ireland/Safe Electric and APEA each installation is tested and certified to their regulations. They also keep up to date with ongoing changes in the electrical industry by attending regular meetings and conferences which are held regularly.

James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors Ltd also carry out on going electrical maintenance for a number of clients and with a large stock of materials and resources we can deliver an outstanding maintenance service to industries to meet their demands which may include carrying-out the work outside normal working-hours.

“We’re all about safety number one for both our employees and customers .Quality and service number two,” James added. “Reliability comes hand in hand with that too. We’re lucky to have a lot of repeat customers on our books. We did lose a few for one reason or another at different times throughout the most recent recession but I say 99% of those came back to us.”

As the gloom of the recent economic downturn continues to lift, there is a feel good factor in the electrical sector and associated trades that has been conspicuous by its absence for quite a while.

Confidence has returned to the market place and it’s exciting times for all associated with James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors Ltd. They are looking forward to moving from their small Ardcath base to a bigger, purpose built premises in Ashbourne in the very near future while James has also added another arrow to the every burgeoning company’s bow in recent weeks.

“We’ll be moving into a new state-of-the-art purpose built 6,500 sq ft premises, which also has a three quarter acre yard, in Ashbourne, Co Meath in the next two to three months,” he revealed, “while we recently acquired Submersible Pump Services, a water pump and treatment supplier company.

“We intend to move a couple of their staff over including the renowned water pumping expert who has 50 years experience in this industry, Chris Maher, and recruit new people. We officially took over the company from Chris on June 1st last but the takeover had been in the pipeline for the last year or so. Our ambition is to build that bigger again.”

“We’re in the process of fitting out the unit in Ashbourne to facilitate that alongside the existing electrical business. In hindsight, we were lucky in the sense that I was looking at buying a unit back around 2007-’09 but ended up staying in temporary accommodation and storage. As things turned out, we were then in a position to buy the new unit for a reasonable price.”

It’s fair to say then that the future looks bright – and hopefully wet!

“Overall, things are going well and we’ve come a long way. As a company, we’ve worked very hard over the last fifteen years to stay afloat and I feel that we are out the other side of that now.”

James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors

2B, Ashbourne Business Park, Ashbourne

Co. Meath

Tel:  041 9808050

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.jamescollinseng.ie

Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, September 2017, Vol 3 No 8

James Collins Electrical Engineers & Contractors