Portarlington, Co Offaly headquartered Dunnes Building Services Limited is a general construction company widely recognised as one of the leading building companies in the midlands. Building Ireland caught up with Managing Director Dermot Dunne to find out more.
Since its inception the company has completed contracts for numerous high-profile clients including the Department of Education & Science, Department of Agriculture, Department of Defence, Office of Public Works, ESB International, Iarnrod Eireann, Bord na Mona as well as many private and individual clients.
The company has grown and developed over the years and has established an excellent and respected reputation for producing work of the highest standard and of being managed with the highest degree of professionalism.
The success of Dunnes Building Services Limited can be attributed to sound, effective management and the employment of a professional and highly-skilled and motivated workforce.
Managing Director Dermot Dunne – who is ably assisted in the day-to-day running of the business by his wife Sinead who is also a director as well as the company’s Office/HR manager – subscribes to theory that a happy workforce is a productive workforce!
“We employ 20 people directly and we have put together a team that we know and trust,” he explained. “People stay with us on a long-term basis because of the ethos of our business – respect and quality.
“The way we work is, everyone does their day’s work and gets to go home in the evening to their family. We don’t work excessive hours because we feel it’s important to get the work/life balance right.”
He added: “We’re a family-run business with a family ethos.”
Quality is one of the vital components of the success and survival of every company. At Dunnes Building Services Ltd, they are committed to achieving continued profitability through carrying out all projects to the highest possible standards and meeting their customers specified requirements.
One of Dunnes Building Services’ many satisfied customers includes Audi Athlone. Dermot and his team successfully completed the construction of a new Audi facility including showrooms, service areas with extensive site services. The seven-month project was delivered two months ahead of schedule and received a 99.1% quality rating from Audi.
“That was the highest rating in Europe for attention to detail from Audi’s German inspectors,” Dermot revealed.
“Another project we are particularly proud of is Naas Credit Union. That entailed a complete demolition job while keeping the front facade in place. It was subsequently short-listed in the Retail Project of the Year category at the Irish Construction Industry awards.”
DBS also led the renovation of their local library, Portarlington library. They carried out a complete refurbishment and extension of the existing courthouse and library to transform the building into a new public library facility.
The progressive company’s current workload includes a €2.2m new school in Athy, Co Kildare on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills and a refurbishment job for the the Department of Defence in the Curragh camp.
“Business has been up and down these last few years but 2018 has been quite good so far. We’ve increased our turnover every year but it hasn’t increased at the level that we would have expected and I put that down to the tendering process. Contracts are awarded and figures are not adding up. It’s an extremely competitive market and an unrealistic market at times.
“We’re not a company that does work for the sake of work. We hand pick what we do and that is mostly public work. Quality is a big part of that.”
The recent arrival of Dermot’s nephew, Bobby Fitzpatrick, as the company’s Commercial Manager is expected to generate more work in the future.
“Bobby is a qualified engineer who started his career with us before spending 10 years in America because of the downturn. He worked his way up to a Vice President’s role in an Engineering company that had a turnover of €28m a year. He brings with him a huge experience of the commercial world.”
Distance is no object when it comes to work and, looking ahead, Dunnes Building Services are currently eyeing up the lucrative Dublin market.
“While we have always travelled, a lot of our work takes place around Leinster,” Dermot remarked. “We’re probably looking at expanding into the Dublin area to increase our turnover but that brings with it its own problems. We’ll take it one step at a time and see how things go.”
ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 accredited, Dunnes Building Services Ltd is a well-established company whose reputation and credibility in the construction industry is widely recognised. Their track record speaks for itself.
Dunnes Building Services Ltd
Unit 12 Portarlington Ind. Est,
Botley Lane
Portarlington
Co. Offaly
Tel: +353 (0)57 8643827
Fax: +353 (0)57 8643877
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.dunnesbuildingservices.com
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, February 2019, Vol 5 No 2
