Based in Cashel, Co Tipperary, JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing provides its clients with fencing and synthetic sports pitch projects which are second to none. Building Ireland touched base with Sales Director Adrian Cummins to learn all about the company – from its origins to the projects it has on-going at the moment.
Business is good these days at JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing and the plan for the Cummins family and the entire team in Mayfield is to try and keep things that way right through to next year.
Set-up by Jim (James Noel) Cummins in 1990, the company has grown from strength to strength and also evolved along the way when it comes to the services which it provides.
Today, it is recognised as Ireland’s largest security fencing contractor and has also become a leading installer of synthetic sports surfaces.
Building Ireland spoke with Adrian Cummins (Sales Director) to find out more on this thriving family-run venture which holds an excellent reputation amongst its clients.
“In total, we have 65 staff working here at the minute,” he outlined.
“My father Jim started the company and is still at the head of it today, my mother Muriel (co-director) my uncle John (Cummins) is the Managing Director, and my youngest brother James Jr is a site foreman. I’m the Sales Director here.”
The origins of the business date back to a time when Jim Cummins had started out supplying and installing farm-style timber rail fencing. He moved into mesh fencing after that and, from there, JNC as a company was born and it’d go on to establish itself as a market leader in industrial security and sports fencing.
Through its sports fencing work, the company would eventually take the decision to branch out and offer its clientele the complete package with synthetic pitches.
Fast-forward some 33 years since its inception and JNC Fencing & Premier Pitches is perhaps as busy as it has ever been, as Adrian himself explained.
“Business is very good,” he stated. “Just leading on from Covid, obviously there was a huge backlog of work that needed to be got through.
“So, there’s an influx of this work coming through, especially on Premier Pitches. We have a lot of clubs looking to develop their facilities who would’ve originally got grant aid probably two years ago but just couldn’t spend it. Not only couldn’t spend it, but couldn’t fundraise further over Covid.
“So, the industry has a glut of work since restrictions were fully lifted and thankfully there’s a big pipeline of projects going forward. Business has been good the last two years, with 2022 being a record year for turnover.”
Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government lockdowns which followed in order to combat the spread of the virus, took a toll on businesses everywhere at the time.
Restrictions caused the temporary shutdown of JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing’s projects, although there were essential projects on the company books after lifting of the first full lockdown back in 2020.
“We had to shut down for a fairly significant period of time, which was far from ideal but fully understandable,” said the Sales Director.
“When the restrictions were introduced, we did gradually go back but on the basis of carrying out essential projects only. JNC Fencing had several infrastructural and government projects on the books such as large data centre’s and new school builds that all require security fencing while Premier Pitches had several pitch contracts with main contractors for new school builds which needed to proceed.
“We had to decide which projects we were legally allowed to continue or commence works on during the restrictions. Sometimes we had the materials ready to go on those projects and other times we didn’t, so our manufacturing team had to work proactively to make sure installation crews had what was needed for those specific projects.
“It was slow progress initially but, we managed around it, albeit on massively reduced turnover basis. We were still getting through the projects on a gradual basis which is testament to our team’s willingness and versatility.”
Indeed, this past year has seen the company delivering some fantastic projects for prominent clients.
In fencing, JNC completed work last year on a €1m project for the IDA in Kilbarry, Co Cork which was 2,000 metres of ESB spec palisade all manufactured in-house, while another involved 4,000 metres of 868 Doublebeam mesh at the East Galway Landfill for Galway County Council.
Adrian was also good enough to fill us in on the details of some other prestigious projects to date for the company.
“Fibonacci Square’ for John Sisk & Sons, which will act as Facebook’s headquarters in Europe. JNC supplied and installed all the lower-level fencing for the entire building to secure generators, internal coolers and a range of other high value infrastructural units using bespoke mag lock gates and a range of different height fence panels to work around an array of internal building services. This was a great project to be involved in given the client and end user and we were delighted to deliver to both.”
JNC were also awarded a high value project for the Department of Defence consisting of 1.2m high bespoke palisade designed and manufactured by our inhouse team. Adrian finishes by saying: “Being associated and delivering for these high profile client time and time again is paramount to the success of the entire company.“
As for pitch works, JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing are currently immersed in what Adrian cites as “a flagship” project for his family’s business.
The works are currently underway on a new State-of-the-Art FIFA certified synthetic pitch at Sean Walsh Park Tallaght Co. Dublin. This is right beside Tallaght Stadium and is being considered as a training facility for Shamrock Rovers FC.
The project value is just shy of €1m, with South Dublin County Council its client, and it’s set to be a 6,000-metre FIFA-certified synthetic pitch which will be fully flood-lit.
A flagship project indeed. Last year saw JNC Premier Pitches & JNC Fencing Fencing carrying out works on some 60 pitches around Ireland with some very high profile and high value projects to name a few, Passage AFC 6000m2 FIFA certified pitch, Salesian College Co. Kildare 6,000m2 FIFA certified pitch, Ringmahon Rangers Co. Cork, Maynooth Town FC Co. Kildare, St Pauls NS Navan Co. Meath 7,000m2, Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds side-line/ technical areas & Commercials GAA Co. Dublin 7,000m2 synthetic pitch.
As for what else is on the horizon for the company this year, Adrian doesn’t rule out the possibility of further expansion to its team in Mayfield.
Even through the pandemic, JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing has managed to continue its steady growth and, given the state of business at the minute, it’s a trend that will likely to continue in 2023.
“With the growing number of projects on the books this necessitates more hands on deck,” Adrian explained.
“We are looking at adding to our pricing team with an additional Quantity Surveyor to work across pitch and fencing projects. In the hope this will cover more ground on the pricing front, we would look at adding an extra civils team and synthetic grass installation crew to deal with the projected increased project pipeline.
“In addition to this we have expanded our plant massively in the last 12 months by adding an additional 7,000m2 of concrete yard space to one of our yards and moving the majority of operations to this facility which has greatly improved internal efficiencies. We also have a new warehouse planned for storage and manufacturing which is set to get underway late 2023.“
Looking towards the coming months for JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing, Adrian says that the hopes are to keep the projects book full and branch out into other areas of the market.
“To build on turnover while maintaining quality is always the goal,” he said when asked about the company’s hopes for 2023.
“Can we maintain or improve quality?“ That is the question Adrian asks himself before implementing any ideas for rapid expansion. “You have your fencing products and you don’t stray from five or six main fencing elements, whereas pitches are a relatively new concept and there is new innovations being introduced constantly so there’s so many other options that we can branch into.
“There is a couple of different sports that we are looking to branch into. Basically, more so sports in Europe and bring them into the Irish market and then expanding the whole maintenance and resurfacing side of the business.
“Obviously, the volume of new builds aren’t going to be there forever and, I suppose, the ones that we do build we’ll be setting up maintenance contracts on those and then focusing on project 10-12 years old where resurfacing is required.
“The third area that we want to look at within pitches is the green initiative and sustainability where we’re looking at different types of infill for the synthetic grass. Currently, SBR or a crumbed rubber is used widespread, this is essentially a recycled tyre rubber which is cost effective and works well.
“We’re currently looking at alternative infills such as cork which is more environmentally sustainable but is at the very early stages in use and has some bit to go development wise to ensure it meets performance standards for the different sporting codes.
“We are also involved highly in the R&D side of the synthetic turf systems being installed so we work closely with suppliers to combine the different density shockpads and grass types to achieve the best possible metrics when it comes to GAA, FIFA and World Rugby testing criteria. We pay a lot of attention what systems are working well and the type of feedback clients are getting from the actually players and so have developed a highly desired system to pass all three main sporting codes including the new 2022 GAA testing criteria which is possibly the most difficult of all tests to satisfy.“
He concluded: “The growth of JNC Fencing and more specifically Premier Pitches over the past 4-5 years has been great to see and testament to the collaborative effort of everyone on the team but with a currently volatile market and regulations constantly changing we as company need to be proactive rather than re-active to increase profit margins and constantly development our Unique Selling Point all while maintaining the standard of quality that has put us at the forefront of the fencing and synthetic pitch market for over 30 years.“
JNC Premier Pitches & Fencing
Mayfield,
Cashel,
Co Tipperary
Telephone: +353 (0)62 62214
Fax: +353 (0)62 62947
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Web: www.jncfence.com / www.sportspitch.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, June 2023, Vol 9 No 6
