With a stellar track record for delivering extremely high-quality installations since 1993, Kiernan Engineering Contractors is an industry-leading Cork-based electrical & instrumentation contracting company that has forged robust partnerships with a who’s who of clients from the pharmaceutical, commercial, petrochemical, industrial, food & beverages, education and healthcare sectors.
Exceptional service levels and excellent client relations have been central to the extraordinary success of Kiernan Engineering Contractors for coming up on three decades. It is an unswerving desire to achieve that has made them class leaders in their field of expertise since 1993 and they pride ourselves on having worked in partnership with a large number of their client base since the company’s inception.
Nurturing existing relationships and developing new ones has constituted a critical aspect of Kiernan Engineering Contractors’ journey to date and this will categorically continue to be the case going forward as they endeavour to grow these partnerships by continuing to provide unrivalled electrical & instrumentation contracting solutions, invariably delivered in a safe and cooperative working environment.
Forever broadening their horizons and embracing new challenges, Kiernan Engineering Contractors boast an impressive, varied client list including Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Leo Pharmaceuticals, Biomarin, Merck, Irving Oil Refinery, G.E, Boston Scientific, Janssen, Dell/EMC, Heineken, Dairygold, Cork University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital, St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital, St Finbarr’s Hospital, UCC, CIT, Carrigaline Education Campus, Clearstream-Navigation Square, Apple, Horgans Quay Office Development, Maldron Hotel, Facebook, the OPW and many more besides.
Operations director Finbarr O’Regan and Associate Director Ronan Stanton are delighted to report that – 29 years on from their inception – Kiernan Engineering Contractors are experiencing exponential growth year on year. “We’ve enjoyed steady growth over the last number of years, where we have been developing our partnerships in the commercial sector,” confirms the latter.
“We have built strong relationships with a number of commercial clients in the past number of years. Partnering up with this clients, we have delivered a series of large commercial projects, which has enabled us to continue our growth in this sector.”
One such project is a commercial office fit out at Horgan’s Quay – a major rejuvenation scheme comprising a magnificent mixed-use development on the quays entering Cork city, where Block No.1 incorporated a part newly-constructed, part restoration to form a Grade A. eight-storey, modern, open floor office block with panoramic views of the city.
Kiernan Engineering Contractors provided full electrical installation and commissioning including containment and power distribution; bespoke automated lighting control system; fire detection and suppression; complete data and Wi-Fi network; security, access control and CCTV; UPS and generating systems; PV and EV charging; automated BMS system; Cat A fit out; commissioning and handover.
In terms of government contracts, Kiernan Engineering have recently picked up a number of prestigious projects within the education sector. To this end, they are undertaking the delivery of a full electrical package for a new campus in Blarney, having just finished a similar project in Carrigaline. They are also scheduled to take on projects at Tralee IT and Cork IT, where they expect to commence work in Q4 2022.
“We also have a lot of healthcare projects ongoing, while pharmaceutical – where we have built up a very strong client base over a number of years – is still our biggest sector,” notes Finbarr. “A large percentage of our work is with the same clients. This repeat business is most welcome and is driving the growth of the company.”
From new manufacturing facilities to modification of existing plant and equipment, Kiernan Engineering have consistently delivered a succession of challenging projects within the pharmaceutical sector. Be it new process facilities, extensions, clean rooms, filter driers, vessel reactors or anything in between, they have the experience and expertise to achieve complete client satisfaction every time.
“We enjoyed a very busy 2020/21, with a lot of largescale projects in production facilities where we are well established, reaching peak numbers in our history in terms of staff,” Ronan reveals. “From the quality of our workmanship to our management systems and the safety standards achieved, we endeavour to give a very good customer-client experience and that is why they keep coming back to us.
“We are always open to exploring new opportunities, new partnerships and to developing new markets. As a result of this, over the next couple of years, we will be targeting further expansion.”
At the time of writing, Kiernan Engineering Contractors were generating direct employment for a skilled and experienced in-house team of approximately 200 personnel, whose contribution to the ongoing success and growth of the company is immeasurable. “They are all direct employees and that makes us quite unique in our line of work as a lot of our competitors use subcontracted and agency staff,” Finbarr relates. “We avoid going down that route as direct employees will always give you a better quality of finish and employee loyalty is reflected in quality workmanship.
“We have invested heavily in an apprentice training programme, with comprehensive in-house training provided. Every apprentice has a direct manager for the duration of their four years and that line to management is an important tool in enabling them to learn and progress.”
Ronan continues: “Training is a very important part of our values and our vision. We have also invested significantly in Health & Safety, again with a direct manager overseeing everything. We have our own in-house Health & Safety managers on site which administer training, which again, is unique as many companies bring in outside parties to manage the training in Health & Safety for them.
“We have strategically grown and strengthened the different departments of the company over the years, all geared towards giving customers the best service possible. Our aim is to keep improving, to be more responsive and to deliver the best-possible, all-round service so that customers can continue to have confidence in us.
“We have a really good structure now within the company with all functions working together. It is a collaborative approach across our senior management, quality, safety and commercial departments. Communication between all is key and we have a good reporting structure,” Finbarr adds. “This is what our clients demand and we provide it.
“It takes time to build these structures up but we are aligned and focussed in our approach and within the company we are all working together to provide the best possible customer experience.”
Kiernan Engineering Contractors remained busy during the darkest days of the Covid-19 public health emergency and associated restrictions. “We were very busy in pharma and oil & gas,” Finbarr recalls. “While a lot of the commercial projects were temporarily put on hold, we were fortunate in that we kept ticking along.”
“We came out of that period with a lot of positives,” Ronan interpolates. “We reacted to the challenges, adapted and found new ways of doing things. We embraced new technology, which we can now bring forward to provide an even better service. It was a big change for everybody but we feel we came out of it stronger.”
One specific area where Kiernan Engineering Contractors became more efficient was in setting up workshops to provide as much off-site manufacturing as possible in order to reduce labour on site. Today, they still do as much modular building as possible and this departure reflects the company’s ethos of constantly moving with the times in order to provide the best-possible service levels.
It’s a policy that has served the company well to date and will no doubt continue to do so going forward.
Kiernan Engineering Contractors,
Unit 15,
Airport East Business and Technology Park,
Farmers Cross,
Cork.
Tel: 021 4310910
Fax: 021 4315811
Email: [email protected]
Web: kiernanelectrical.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2022, Vol 8 No 10
Kiernan Engineering Contractors
