Congratulations to William Doyle & Sons Construction who took Retail Project of the Year award honours at the Irish Construction Industry Awards 2016. Director Philip Doyle reflects on the Wexford-based company’s prestigious success.
The Irish Construction Industry Awards recognise, encourage and celebrate original and innovative contractors, businesses, teams, consultants and projects that demonstrate excellence in the built environment.
The third annual Irish Construction Industry Awards 2016 took place on June 2nd at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Dublin in front of an audience of over 500 distinguished industry professionals.
Hosted by Irish comedian Kevin McGahern of Republic of Telly fame, 23 trophies were presented to the very best leaders, organisations and projects within the industry.
When it came to the Retail Project of the Year category, the judges didn’t look beyond William Doyle & Sons Construction Limited’s exemplary work on the Audi Showroom in Wexford town and Billy Doyle accepted the award from Ger Casey, Director of Architecture & Planning, Grangegorman Development Agency.
“It came as a great surprise to us because we only entered the competition on a whim at the last minute,” a delighted Philip Doyle, Billy’s son, explained to Building Ireland magazine.
“We submitted our presentation and were delighted when we got word that we were nominated in the first place. Looking around on the night, we were up for awards with the likes of the BAM’s and the Sisk’s of this world, and to come out on top in as illustrious company as that is a brilliant achievement for us.”
The purpose of this project was to construct a motor sales and service building with a motor valeting building and associated site works at Ardcavan, Co. Wexford.
The project, which commenced in January 2015, was commissioned because Audi were rolling out there new Audi Terminal design all over the world.
The new Audi architecture building type is the Audi terminal. Dynamism, asymmetry and transparency are central to the design intentions of Audi architecture and act as the determining elements of the Audi terminal.
Philip added: “The finish and quality of construction were two of the things that impressed the judges. They were shocked that a car showroom would have such a top level finish and high standard of design. Those were the main things that they were saying about it.
“Five or six years ago Audi rolled out a new concept for their showrooms and all Audi franchises had to implement the new building. It’s a very high end building, and has brought car showrooms to a whole new level.”
The project was completed on time and on budget even though the construction programme was very demanding as it tied in with the sales cycle within the motor industry and the demands set down by Audi AG.
Audi conduct a full building and site audit at practical completion stage of the project – the building is marked out of 100 with the pass mark 85.
The Doyle family company’s work got a mark of 94 which was one of the highest marks received in Ireland from all the new Audi terminals that have been built in Ireland. It was also one of the highest marks received throughout the UK.
Like the competition judges and Audi’s auditors, the client, Diarmaid Boland of Audi Wexford was also more than impressed with William Doyle & Sons’ quality workmanship and end product.
“William Doyle & Sons high level of professionalism; reliability and understanding of our business requirements are key characteristics that distinguish them from the competition,” he said.
“For several years we have had a strong relationship with William Doyle & Sons and in that time they have consistently listened to our requirements and through their expert and in-depth knowledge implemented the best solution for us time and time again.
“They delivered our fantastic new Audi terminal on time and on budget and to the highest quality expected by Audi.”
Philip Doyle continued: “We had a great honest and open relationship with the client – architect and engineers throughout the build. We used Building Information Modelling (BIM) for this project which helped a lot with clash detection and as visual aid for all our subbies early in the project.
“We also have a great relationship with all our sub-contractors many of whom we use on all our projects and have worked with us for 30 years or more. We worked with them from the start to instil the quality of finish and detailing that these Audi terminals demanded from Audi.”
Very much a family affair, Philip is joined in the running of the business by his father Billy, who established William Doyle & Sons 35 years ago, his brothers, Liam and Paul, and uncle Ben Doyle and their work is concentrated mainly in the south east of the country.
“We specialise in car showrooms along with high end one off homes,” explained Philip who also runs his own architectural practice, Doyle + Partners Architecture.
“Thankfully, we’re busy at the moment and have plenty of work on including a new Jaguar and Land Rover showroom going to site very soon as a design/build project.
“My father has built up a lot of good contacts down through the years. We never got overly big so we were lucky enough when the recession hit in that we didn’t have to let any staff members go, even though our prices were well down.
“Things are most definitely beginning to pick up but the rest of the country has some way to go before it catches up with Dublin.”
With an Irish Construction Industry Award added to their CV, the future looks bright for William Doyle & Sons Construction.
William Doyle & Sons Construction
Brownstown
Newbawn
Co. Wexford
Mobile: 087 3149563
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, August 2016, Vol 2 No 4
