Collating almost half a century of expertise, Eugene Duffy Construction is one of Northern Ireland’s premier civil engineering and construction firms, specialising in working in live environments to deliver healthcare and education projects to the highest possible standards. We travelled to Crossmaglen and met managing director Paul Duffy to learn more about this exceptional family business.
Renowned near and far for providing excellent solutions in the healthcare, education and renewable energy sectors, Eugene Duffy Construction is one of Newry & Mourne’s most experienced and trusted construction experts. A client-focussed, family-run operation specialising in building, civil engineering, renewable energy and facilities management, Eugene Duffy Construction has accumulated vast experience across a wide range of different sectors including domestic, industrial, retail, healthcare, education and the public sector.
The professional, highly-skilled and –experienced team at Eugene Duffy Construction deliver quality service, value, integrity and an unrivalled level of customer service. All projects are completed to the highest standards, on time and within budget
Providing public and private sector clients with customised civil engineering and building solutions, Eugene Duffy Construction’s experts are driven by the needs of clients. The Duffy family have specialised in the building trade for the best part of 50 years and have forged many strong relationships with clients throughout this time, boasting vast experience in both one-off construction projects and planned long-term projects.
Eugene Duffy Construction can deliver across a wide range of disciplines – new builds or extensions and refurbishments to homes, schools, hospitals, commercial premises and offices. The same quality of service is always brought to site, regardless of the size of the project. Every client and each project is treated with the same supreme attention to detail.
Reflecting on the genesis of the family business, managing director Paul Duffy states: “My father has been contracting since 1069 but Eugene Duffy Construction became a limited company in 2006. He started off doing residential work but then moved into healthcare, education, industrial and commercial projects.
“At first, we predominantly covered the Newry & Mourne / Armagh region but in the last five years we’ve been taking on projects all over Northern Ireland as well as the Republic and England and England.” Work completed in the Republic includes fit-outs for retail giants Lidl. “We haven’t actually done an awful lot in the South recently and we’ll look at getting more into that market in the coming years,” says Paul.
At the moment, healthcare, education and renewable energy (anaerobic digestion) plants accounts for the lion’s share of Eugene Duffy Construction’s ample order book.
For Southern Health and Social Care Trust, they acted as main contractor on a complete refurbishment of the Accident & Emergency department at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry between 2012 and 2016 while, at the time of writing, they were actively engaged on a refurb of the Ramone Ward in Craigavon Area Hospital.
“Most of our resources are in Craigavon Area at the moment and we’re also doing a couple of AD plants,” Paul told me. “In education, we deliver new builds and fit-outs but unfortunately there are no education projects to tender for right now as there’s no government in place but hopefully there will be funding again soon and we’ll then apply for more work with the Education and Library Board. Most of our work is carried out for repeat clients and I’d say about 80% of it recently has been for Southern Health and Social Care Trust.”
Regarding the renewable energy aspect of the family business – and specifically the construction of anaerobic digestion plants – Paul continues: “We do all the civil works and a German company called Agrikomp UK comes in and looks after the technology side of things before we hand the plant over to the client. They’re normally a joint-venture between the farmer and a third party; I’d say we’ve completed abut twenty of them in the last three to four years.”
Recent private projects delivered include the new £1m credit union in Crossmaglen last year and a new doctor’s surgery in Newry completed in May, 2017.
Direct employment is generated for a crew of 30 men and Eugene Duffy Construction has eight company vehicles on the road. “Things are picking up again, thankfully,” says Paul. “Our staff are all long-term employees and some of them have been with us for 30 to 40 years.”
As for the key to delivering the top-class service for which Eugene Duffy Construction has become synonymous over the years, nay decades, Paul adds: “We use good tradesmen and that’s very important. Getting the price right at the start is also crucial and not having to cut corners to make it work. Experience and expertise are paramount and we also build strong, transparent working relationships with our clients. We’re also very comfortable working in hospital environments, which is a niche in itself and considerably different to working on a building site.
“Consistency and dependability are other strengths. You try to use the same subcontractors all the time because they are all familiar with what has to be done and the standards that are expected from us and our clients.”
Paul is joined in the running of the family business by his sister, Caroline McCreesh, who works in the office. A joiner by trade, he has been involved himself for 20 years and prides himself on the quality of the people who work for him: “We have excellent foremen who have been here since before my time and we’re delighted to have those men on our books because good tradesmen are very hard to find these days.
“The lads all put in a great effort. At least half of the work is done out of hours – through the night or at weekends – so that the working environments will be ready for the workers the following day. When you are working in live environments, you do so at a time that suits the people working there on a day-to-day basis.”
Looking to the future, Paul says it’s onwards and upwards for Eugene Duffy Construction Ltd.: “We built new offices four years ago and have four people based here. We will increase that number to six with the addition of a couple more surveyors and hopefully increase our workload and break more into the Republic of Ireland market, because it’s a small island.
“We just finished a couple of AD plants in Scotland in April and we did three in Birmingham last year. The market in the UK is picking up for larger renewable energy projects and there are opportunities there for larger developments, which we would definitely be interested in,” the affable Crossmaglen man concludes.
Eugene Duffy Construction Ltd.,
8 Glassdrumman Road,
Crossmaglen,
Newry,
County Down,
BT35 9DX.
Tel: 028 3086 1659
Web: eugeneduffyconstruction.com
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, September 2017, Vol 3 No 8
