Founded in County Wexford by Peter O’Connor in 2000, O’Connor Formwork Ltd. has established itself as one of Ireland’s premier concrete formwork contractors. We travelled to Ramsgrange and met up with Peter to find out more about an exceptional operation that consistently delivers high quality projects on time and to budget.
As proven experts in the construction of high-end concrete structures and the design of associated temporary works, O’Connor Formwork Ltd. is the preferred subcontractor to many of Ireland’s largest main contractors, with a particularly strong presence in the south east.
Employing highly-skilled and experienced personnel and implementing a rigorous Health & Safety policy, the County Wexford headquartered company applies innovative uses of technology to provide optimal engineering solutions to complex sub and superstructures, providing award-winning solutions to a wide range of building types, including high-tech facilities, shopping centres, universities and colleges.
Professionalism, quality control and the highest possible standards permeate every facet of this company and a strict adherence to these core principles has resulted in O’Connor Formwork Ltd. working on a large number of high-profile buildings for clients such as Sisk, BAM, Wills Bros, Mythen Construction, Purcell Construction and Manning Ltd. These buildings include CCGT Great Island Power Station, Waterford Fire Station, Lidl distribution centres in Newbridge and Charleville, Dundrum Secondary School, Coca Cola in Wexford, the New Ross town and Wexford town Swimming Pools & Leisure Centres, Wicklow Cash & Carry and Wyatt Medical in Clondalkin.
Managing director Peter O’Connor has 30 years’ experience of formwork, having accumulated a wealth of expertise working in Australia, London and Germany, where he picked up a lot of innovative ideas. “I started off with a small crew of six men, providing a formwork service to Sisk around Dublin,” he notes, reflecting on the genesis of the business. “We were very busy within a year, working on pharmaceutical plants and the Lidl distribution centre in Newbridge…”
Today, Peter has a crew of approximately 40 men, working mostly in the south east (Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny), mainly for Sisk and BAM Ireland. He is particularly proud to have worked on the Great Island Power Station in Wexford – a two-and-a-half-year project for Sisk – and has also secured subcontract work for new and refurbished courthouses in Wexford and Waterford respectively for BAM. “These are two of the seven new courthouses that BAM are doing around the country and they are sizeable projects,” he states.
The Wexford man attributes the success, longevity and popularity of his company to knowledge and site safety. “We have an excellent track record and all of our personnel are fully trained and certified,” he stresses. “They all know what they are doing and they are highly professional men. The importance of that could not be overstated. A lot of them have been working with us for more than ten years and, by keeping them together, we can offer strong teamwork as well as consistency in everything we do.”
Of course, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. The economic crash and the subsequent near-demise of the construction sector presented many sleepless nights: “There have been huge challenges and at times it seemed like an insurmountable struggle,” Peter admits. “It’s still tough and the industry is still in recession. But the quality of our work and the competency of the men onboard the O’Connor Formwork team got us through. Also, the fact that we don’t have any huge overheads or borrowings and weren’t exposed in that way. Our creditors were good to us, as well. We have a good credit rating and our creditors always stand by us.
To sustain the high quality of workmanship for which O’Connor Formwork is renowned, significant investment in plant and machinery is required every year. “Everything has to be kept right as well – you can’t take any chances. Everything has to be working 100% or you won’t be here. In this line of work, it’s all about perfection, so you have to keep spending money.”
Peter is very much the archetypal hands-on owner, who is on site around the clock and takes a personal interest in every project. He admits to also deriving a great deal of personal pride from completing the various projects: “We’ve completed a lot of major projects and of course it is good to be able to stand back afterwards and say you did it. The CCGT Great Island Power Station was a big one for us – we poured 20,000 cubic metres of concrete into that.”
Looking to the future, Peter is confident that many more landmark projects will be signed off in the coming years and decades: “We’ll consolidate what we have. Getting bigger isn’t necessarily the same as getting better and I’m happy with the size of the business at the moment, so we won’t be chasing expansion.
“We’ve taken on our first project direct for the client – a €15m expansion for Custom Compost / Walsh Mushrooms in Gorey, where we have been on-site for three years to date. Getting the quality right is paramount and we will continue to implement the highest levels of quality control and project management. We’ve managed to keep all of our men in work and that’s something I’d dearly love to be able to do going forward.”
O’Connor Formwork Ltd.
Shielbaggan,
Ramsgrange,
New Ross,
County Wexford.
Tel: 051 562728
Mobile: 087 2353831
Email: [email protected]
Web: oconnorformwork.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, July 2016, Vol 2 No 3
