Based in Glinny, Co Cork, Kumry Construction Ltd is a family-run company with the best part of three decades’ experience in the construction industry. Building Ireland spoke with director James Vaughan to learn more about the ins and outs of this venture, its current projects and the overall state of business at the moment.
These are busy times at Kumry Construction Ltd and the plan for father and son Jim and James Vaughan, and the rest of the team, is to try and keep things that way right through to next year.
Established by Jim Vaughan back in 1995, the company today specialises in carrying out residential projects all around Cork, and beyond the Rebel County’s borders, and has been more or less growing year on year since the recession of ‘08.
Kumry Construction currently employs 17 full-time staff from its base in Glinny, Riverstick, Co Cork and has plans to add to their team in the months ahead.
Building Ireland touched base with company director James Vaughan to hear all about the business his father Jim has put his heart into from ‘Day One’ and its overall hopes going forward.
“It was Jim’s company and I’m only after coming into it in the last three years,” outlined James.
“I was with a consulting company before that and he would’ve built it from the ground up. The company is established 28 years now and we’re up to 17 staff full-time, with me as director and Jim still Managing Director.”
Business is strong at the minute for the company, with James himself revealing that it’s nearly “too busy to be honest”.
Over the past decade-and-a-half or so, Kumry Construction has switched its focus towards namely residential projects in and around Cork city.
It was a strategic change made by Jim Vaughan during a challenging time in the Irish construction industry and, since it was made, it has proven a successful move with the company currently thriving.
“With regards to the services we offer, we do everything really. During the recession, it was a lot of commercial work but, since then, it’s a lot of residential work,” James pointed out.
“Apartments, houses and that kind of thing and we’re also doing jobs for the Mercy Hospital here in Cork and other smaller commercial units.”
Right now, Kumry Construction is immersed in several projects for clients that saw the business hit the ground running at the start of 2023.
Fast-forward some four months on and the company’s books remain more or less full with numerous projects that, as James himself point out, are valued over €1m.
Working on high-end houses has become something of a forte for Jim Vaughan and his team over the past decade or so, and it’s a trend that they want to continue as they fast approach 30 years in business.
“We do a lot of larger houses kind of over the €1m mark, so we have a few of them on at the minute,” said James.
“We also do a lot of work in restoration of old buildings around Cork city and changing them into apartments, so we have a lot of them finishing at the moment.
“We’re currently finishing four of those on Douglas St, six on Henry St and another seven are on-going on North Main St in Cork city.”
Busy times indeed.
So, all of the considered, the burning question is what has been the secret behind Kumry Construction’s success to date?
How has a small start-up grown into a thriving construction business that holds an excellent reputation amongst its clients?
For James, a lot of it is down to the fact that he and his father provide a personal touch which so often sees clientele dealing with them directly when it comes to a project.
“It’s a family-run business and it’s me and Jim on the phone rather than someone else, mainly,” said the director.
“They’re dealing with us directly, and I think that’s something that the client very much appreciates with us.”
It’s certainly an approach which has worked thus far, and you can be guaranteed it’ll continue to be the way at Kumry Construction.
As things stand, they’re looking to add to their team Glinny in the form of more carpenters and a new Project Manager.
Good people are hard to find these days but this construction firm certainly have a strong record when it comes to employing the best in the business.
“The company’s based around carpenters because my father’s a carpenter, so we’re trying to add carpenters to the crew all the time,” said James.
“We’re also currently looking for a Project Manager at the moment, so we will be hopefully adding a few more to the staff overall in the next few months.”
Looking towards the months ahead for the company, James hopes to see it “keep on growing the way it has been growing” with a few more members of staff to help with the completion of more projects.
Given its trajectory as of late and the overall state of business at the moment, it’s safe enough to say that Kumry Construction will continue its growing trend again into next year.
Kumry Construction Ltd
Glinny,
Riverstick,
Co Cork
Tel: 021 477 1652
E-mail: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, July 2023, Vol 9 No 7
