Centum Construction Services is a fast growing Irish-based company which is a specialist supplier of labour to clients in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Commercial Director Paddy McKeever gave Building Ireland an insight into their modus operandi.
Established four years ago and with offices in Newry and Monaghan town, Centum has built a reputation on providing various packages to suit the needs of all clients to help them deliver their projects on time and on budget.
Their clients are mostly main contractors who need them to help supplement their current workforce or provide the total labour for their project. Labour can be supplied on day works packages or on a fixed-price contract where they supply their own supervision.
Their main focus is on clients with Commercial Projects, Data Centres, Pharma Plants and Heavy Industry plants. Centum meets the needs of these clients by providing skilled manual labour in a cost-effective, compliant and structured way.
Their existing clients know they have the resources and know how to mobilise workers locally and internationally to fulfil their requirements. That’s why their services have been very much in demand at home and abroad. Projects they have worked on in the past includes MTV Berlin, Parliament Buildings Stormont and Microsoft Data Centre Amsterdam and various confidential Data Centre and Pharma Plants both in Ireland and Europe.
“This is our fourth year in business and we have doubled our turnover year on year,” revealed Paddy McKeever who is well known in GAA circles as a member of Armagh’s ground breaking All-Ireland winning SFC team of 2002. “We operate 150 to 200 men at any one point in time and we have carried out work in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, England and Europe. We’re doing a lot of work on data centres and pharma projects at the minute.”
Paddy continued: “When we set up the company there was a big demand at the time for electricians and for labour. There was a massive shortage of skilled labour. Things have worked out well so far and, thankfully, we are very busy. There is a lot of work ready to take off around Dublin and Europe inside the next couple of months. We have a pool of tried and trusted guys who are working with us. Our clients know they can expect to get quality and skilled labour when they contact us.”
Centum offer the following services to their clients:
• Large volumes of skilled workers.
• Screening, testing and administrative processes to ensure suitable labour is provided.
• Suitable qualified and experienced supervisors to manage labour and projects if required.
• Fully managed logistics and welfare services: A serious professional labour supplier who will deal with all out-of-work matters such as Travel, Accomodation, etc.
• Large and efficient mobilization of labour globally.
• Timesheet System – they help themselves and their client manage costs and working time, with easy to follow transparent record.
• Fiscal and regulatory affairs: Tax compliant in local markets and jurisdictions, using a ‘top 5’ accountancy firm for international advice.
• Flexibility to work within their Clients’ requirements.
A key ingredient in their successful formula is that Centum provides peace of mind for the client and the men on the ground.
There is a risk attached to outsourcing labour. You deal with your own assurance issues every day within your direct workforce and you need to ensure that your supply chain matches your own standards.
Tell Centum what you want from them and they’ll ensure that statutory, regulatory, industry, sector and customer requirements will be monitored by their compliance and quality control staff.
“We can come to a client with 100 men and we look after the transportation, accommodation and tax arrangements for those men, that way there is no disruption to their project of works,” Paddy outlined.
Clients can have confidence that at Centum they have the necessary systems and procedures in place and can deliver within complex arrangements. They believe that maintaining compliance and quality control as an independent unity from their operational teams has allowed them to offer high levels of assurance to their customers. Operating this way supports a strong commitment to their clients.
Centum recognises that their people are our most valuable asset and that the provision of a safe and healthy working environment is integral to both successful business outcomes and sustained growth.
This is reinforced through their extensive occupational health provision and health and safety training programmes.
They continually strive to improve their health and safety management system through regular ‘health checks’, with the ultimate aim being zero harm to any person involved or affected by their activities.
In addition, Centum are dedicated to providing consistently high-quality operatives, adhering to the highest level of personal service standards across all the sectors in which they operate.
“We are keen to speak with anyone that has any up and coming projects that will require labour resource in both Ireland and the UK and have a keen interest in European projects,” Paddy concluded.
Registered Office (Europe)
Centum (Europe)
3 North Road,
Monaghan Town
Co.Monaghan
H18 FD78
Registered Office (UK)
Centum (UK)
41A Monaghan Street
Newry
Co.Down
BT35 6AY
Website: www.centum.ie
Tel: 00353 (0)15686385
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, July, Vol 5 No 7
