Based in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, Sugrue Builders Ltd is a family-owned construction firm which specialises in renovation, extension and new builds work for its clients. Building Ireland touched base with Managing Director Cormac Sugrue to hear all about the company – from its origins to the projects it has on-going at the moment.
Business is good these days at Sugrue Builders Ltd and the plan for Cormac Sugrue and his team based along the Carrickhill Road in Portmarnock, Dublin 13 is to try and keep things running in the same smooth manner right through to next year.
Operating with 11 full-time staff, the company was set up by Cormac’s father Dan Sugrue during the mid to late 1990s and its original founder is still there behind the scenes to this day lending a helping hand.
Since its inception, Sugrue Builders Ltd has grown to the point now where it holds an excellent reputation amongst its clientele, having delivered first class projects for them for well over two decades now.
Building Ireland spoke with Cormac recently to discuss the ins and outs of the business, its work and overall hopes going forward.
“We specialise in pretty much everything here,” outlined the Dubliner. “We do commercial, residential and, I suppose, our bread and butter would be renovations, extensions and new builds.
“We’ve done commercial buildings, GAA clubs, physio practices and apartments in town as well over the years and, on the residential, we’d do one-off houses.”
Cormac’s own background saw him becoming involved in his father’s business shortly after he had finished school a few years into the millennium’s turn and he has remained immersed in it ever since.
These days he’s heading up the business his father first started and, despite the many obstacles for company owners within the construction at the minute, the picture is very positive at this point in time for Sugrue Builders Ltd.
“Business is good. It’s busy,” said Cormac. “Material costs and a shortage of labour make it challenging definitely, but I’m lucky enough that I have good lads that work directly for me.
“You know yourself that the market today is a challenge, basically. Subcontractors, everybody…it’s getting harder and harder dealing with people, I suppose. But we’re busy here now and hopefully it stays that way.”
As residential and commercial contractors, Sugrue Builders Ltd’s expertise is very much in renovations, extensions and new builds.
There’s no job too big or small for this successful building firm, having been involved in projects for as little as a few hundred euro up to millions of euros throughout Dublin (and beyond its borders) down through the years.
Right now, Cormac and his team are immersed in a handful of different projects around the capital which he was good enough to share some details about.
“We’re doing a development project out in Donabate at the moment and we’re also on a one-off house in Clontarf,” the Managing Director explained.
“We’ve got a couple of renovations that are going on at the minute in Malahide and Portmarnock, and then we have six apartments in the city centre as well.
“We’ve a couple of one-off houses coming up in the near future and a couple of big renovations as well. There’s plenty there for us over the next few months, definitely.”
So, all that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret behind Sugrue Builders Ltd’s success to date?
How has a small start-up grown into what is very much now a thriving construction business which holds a golden reputation among its clients?
For Cormac, he credits his father Dan for laying the foundations for the company’s success all those years ago.
“I suppose, it’s the fact we’re so long in business now. My dad went from Kerry over to London and came back home to Kerry and then up to Dublin in the mid-70s and he was in the game all of that time,” he pointed out.
“He built a name, built a rapport and we do a lot of work for the same kind of architects and engineers all the time.
“So, I suppose there’s trust involved in that that they give us the repeat business. Meeting the clients, getting a rapport with them and building it off that.”
Another quality of Sugrue Builders Ltd’s is its ever willingness to support local.
The company has been a backer to Parnells GAA club in past years and, right now, it gives yearly sponsorship to Malahide Rugby Club’s underage teams along with the Naomh Mearnóg GAA nursery team.
It speaks volumes about the business and its values, as it nears closer and closer towards three decades in existence.
As for the year ahead, Cormac is as optimistic as ever that things can keep moving in the right direction for the company, as they continue to meet the high demand from clientele that’s out there at the minute.
“The hopes are to be busy, but be a nice busy, if you know what I mean. That and to keep up the high standards of finishes and overall quality that clients deserve,” he concluded.
Fantastic to hear.
Sugrue Builders Ltd
Skelligs House,
Carrickhill Road,
Portmarnock,
Dublin 13.
Mobile: 087 251 2203
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, May 2024, Vol 10 No 5
