This past May saw ventilation contractors DS Ventilation Ltd celebrate 10 years in business. Building Ireland learned all about the Dublin-based company from its directors Damian and Suzanne Barry.
Business is good at the moment for DS Ventilation Ltd and the plan for company founders Damian and Suzanne Barry is to keep things that way as they embark on the next decade with their dynamic venture.
Incorporated on May 17, 2010, DS Ventilation Ltd has grown to the point where it now employs more than 30 staff out of its headquarters at Cookstown Industrial Estate, Dublin 24.
The company has earned a reputation for the quality and high standard of its work in that time and has developed an excellent working relationship with clients.
Building Ireland heard more from MD Damian Barry about some of the company’s past and present projects, along with the origins of the business.
“The backbone of our work is ventilation,” Damian stated plainly. “Commercial installations make up more than 90% of our work; we have a wide range of projects from office fit outs to data centres and the hospitality sector, to schools and swimming pools”.
DS Ventilation Ltd provides a wide variety of ventilation systems which include heating ventilation, heat recovery ventilation, toilet extract systems and standard kitchen ventilation systems. The company is FIRAS approved for the installation and certification of fire rated ductwork systems such as smoke extract systems, kitchen extract systems and passive ventilation systems.
DS Ventilation Ltd.’s objective has always been the delivery of client satisfaction through the provision of quality work. They provide a friendly, professional and efficient service that is designed to meet their clients’ requirements and ensure that the highest standards of health and safety are adhered to.
“We take pride in the work that we do and I would regularly be on site on the different projects every week. We look at the project and put in the necessary resources that are required to carry out the work efficiently and get the project completed on time,” Damian outlined.
“We have completed fit outs in the offices of several multi-national companies and data centres and have recently started work on new projects in Fitzwilliam Square, Holles Street and Shelbourne Road“.
Employing over 30 staff and running your own business is a far cry from how Damian first started out in this line of work. Alongside his wife Suzanne, he took the decision to start up his own company a decade ago and, thankfully, hasn’t looked back since.
“I started doing this when I was 14 years of age as an apprentice sheet metal worker in the mid-1980s,” he outlined. “Then came the (economic) crash so I moved to London for a few years and came back to Ireland in 1991 and worked on some of the largest projects that were being completed at that time. Come 2010, having worked for others for 30 years I decided to have a go at working for myself so we set-up this business”.
It is not surprising to learn that since graduating from DIT in 2014, their son Graham has also come on board with the business to look after its estimating and procurement.
“2010 was a tough time to start a company in Ireland, but we eventually got going and now things are good. In fact, it’s safe enough to say that the business had been thriving up until the Government lockdown was enforced as a result of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Thankfully most of the sites are now back up and running”.
Damian sees the future as being bright and hopes to add more employees by the end of the year. “I’d have to say that 2019 as a whole was busy and, while there’s been a slowdown in recent months, we’re very optimistic going forward,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have another three or four tradesmen coming in and maybe add a couple of apprentices on top of that as well.”
“We are proud of the fact that we have a mix of nationalities working together here in DS Ventilation Ltd, between Irish, British, Philippine, Polish and Croatian. We value our staff very highly and treat the business as a team effort across all facets. The majority of our staff has been with us since the outset”
So, what has been the secret to success over this past decade?
For Damian, it has been down to the impeccable standards and loyalty of the staff, the quality of service provided on each project and the relationship developed with clients. Each has been a key factor in gaining repeat business over the past 10 years.
Operating with a small fleet of vans on the road, DS Ventilation Ltd is primarily based on projects throughout the Dublin City area and commuter belt and continues to ensure client satisfaction through the provision of quality work.
“I feel we get a lot of repeat business because of the level of service that we are supplying,” he said. “We provide a high quality service and the staff that we have working here are all extremely motivated and have a great attitude on top of that. They regularly communicate directly with our clients on our behalf.”
The plan going forward is to continue to grow the company, to keep up the excellent standards of work and add many new clients to the list along the way. According to Damian “Our hopes for the next few years are to continue the success we’ve had over the previous 10”.
“Things have gone well but we’d be nowhere without our clients and staff. I’d like to thank them all for their support down through the years and for continuing to put their trust in us,” Damian concluded.
DS Ventilation Ltd
23B Second Ave,
Cookstown Industrial Estate,
Dublin 24,
D24 KD7W
Tel: (01) 405 7682
Mob: (0)87 250 4725
E-mail: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, July/August 2020, Vol 6 No 4
