Loughwood Contracting Ltd in Co Galway is fast-approaching a decade in business and is as busy as ever. Building Ireland learned all about the company from its founder Patrick Connolly recently.
Loughwood Contracting has earned itself an excellent reputation for providing its clientele with a first class service – and it’s little wonder why when you consider those at the helm.
It has been nine years since Patrick and Hazel Connolly founded their company in Moylough, Co Galway and in that time some outstanding projects have been completed all throughout Connacht and the country’s Midlands.
Indeed contracts have been completed for a wide range of different clients that include local authorities, multinationals and receivers as well private clientele.
The contracts keep on coming for the time being too and for Patrick he wouldn’t have it any other way, having built this company from the ground up to the success that it is today.
The man himself was good enough to take time from an increasingly busy schedule to outline to Building Ireland what they’re all about.
“We’re based in Moylough, Co Galway and the company has been growing steadily since 2010. At the moment, we have five staff and myself and my wife Hazel are the directors. We also repeatedly use a highly capable team of sub-contractors with a keen focus on quality throughout our workforce,” Pat explained.
“The main services that we provide are commercial fit-out, new house construction, extensions, renovation works and civil works.
“The variety of projects we can successfully carry out speaks for itself as we do a substantial amount of residential work but we have developed a very good reputation for carrying out Commercial and Heritage projects.”
Loughwood Contracting have been providing building and maintenance services all around Galway, the west of Ireland and the Midlands.
The company works in conjunction with various architects, engineers and energy consultants and have completed a wide range of construction, refurbishment and energy upgrade works.
When it comes to airtightness, energy efficiency and standard of finishes – both internally and externally – Loughwood Contracting Ltd has truly exceeded the targets the company had originally set out.
That comes down to the conscientious team of tradespeople and also largely due to the fact that Patrick is mainly site based.
A fully qualified carpenter, Loughwood Contracting Ltd’s Managing Director has close to 20 years’ experience on all different sizes of projects.
“I’m a carpenter by trade. I had worked in all aspects of the trade before setting up on my own. I’m generally site-based which most clients find very helpful with us here,” said Pat.
“As I said, I served my time as a carpenter and spent some years in Australia and the US – that’s where I got my experience. When I came back I first set-up here in 2004 and then founded this company five years later.”
He added: “We started in the middle of the recession but we still managed to grow during it and we have managed to grow the Companies Turnover by an average of 20% every year since we started trading. The difficult trading environment in the first couple of years we set up is not to be understated but we worked hard at securing public contracts, we were also successful in developing good relations with some good private clients and have managed to grow from there and Hopefully we can continue to grow ”
The way business is going at the present time it doesn’t look like being an issue for the firm.
Clients choose Loughwood Contracting for the excellent work it carries out time and time again and the fact that Patrick is always on hand to assist clients, as well as advise on how to get the most from their project, is a huge attraction as well.
Safety is also a huge aspect of the business. The health and safety of Loughwood Contracting’s operatives, clients and members of the public are of the utmost importance to the business and they are in compliance with all aspects of health and safety legislation and have a proud record in relation to Health and Safety.
In many ways the standard of work and health and safety is reflected on how the company is doing business-wise now, close on a decade since its inception.
“Business has been very good to be honest,” Patrick said of the first three months of 2018.
“As it’s going at the moment, we could probably double in size but I’m choosing not to do that. We manage what we have here very well and we hold what we have.”
And the clients that they have at Loughwood Contracting are loyal to the bone, with many having developed a healthy business relationship with Patrick from the outset.
Galway County Council, Roscommon County Council and the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board are three of the company’s most prominent and valued clients.
The work has been coming thick and fast over the past 12 months and there’s more on the way. However, the plan, for now, is to keep things as the way they are with regards to the company’s size.
“We have a couple of projects coming up that I’m just not able to go into at the minute,” said Patrick.
“We carried out some very interesting projects in recent times including the re-roofing of Ballygluinin Railway Station, re-roofing and refurb of Ballinasloe Town Theatre and the re-roofing and renovations to the Aherne Building accountancy offices in Boyle, Co Roscommon. All of which are heritage buildings with differing commercial uses we also recently completed a purpose built residential care facility at Killimor House among many others. We very much intend to grow into the commercial and property development sector over the coming years.”
The Management of the company thoroughly enjoys a challenging project and take great satisfaction from completing a project in keeping with a client’s expectations
Looking towards the summer months, Patrick isn’t about to stray too far either. Indeed it will be more of the same for Loughwood Contracting.
“We have chosen to resist any form of growth that isn’t both profitable and sustainable and I firmly believe this will hold the company in good stead into the future,” the Managing Director concluded.
At the present time, it’s that simple for Patrick Connolly and Loughwood Contracting.
If you’re looking for a job to be done safely, efficiently, cost effectively and to the highest of standards be sure to contact Loughwood Contracting Ltd.
Loughwood Contracting Ltd
Moylough,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway
Tel: 087 6261 080
Fax: 090 9623 664
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, June 2018, Vol 4 No 5
