Coming up on 30 years in business, Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd continues to be one of the leading general construction companies in the Midlands. Building Ireland spoke with Managing Director John Carroll to find out all about the business and learn about some of their current projects.
First established in 1988, Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd has grown from strength to strength to become one of the Midlands’ most trusted and well-established general construction companies.
The company is based in Clonaslee, Co. Laois and develops large scale construction projects across all sectors.
Their clients include the Department of Education & Science, HSE, Laois County Council, Offaly County Council, Westmeath County Council, along with many other commercial and private clients. Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd has an excellent working relationship with its clients and has an excellent and well respected reputation in the Midlands.
Their mission is to provide clients with top quality projects on programme and within budget, as Managing Director John Carroll explained himself: “We pride ourselves on developing good working relationships with clients and design teams and our philosophy is that by working together we can solve all problems.”
There are many issues within the construction industry that need improvement following a long and painful recession.
Giving us the lowdown, John explained that: “There’s a gaping difference between public and private sectors when it comes to securing projects. It’s very competitive out there at the moment and when it comes to the public sector I think that companies are chosen for projects purely on price.
“Hopefully new proposals being considered by the government will address this anomaly where paperwork is more important than past performance in assessing competence.
“Some contractors didn’t treat subcontractors very well during the recession, perhaps for their own survival reasons, but many fine subcontractors suffered badly. Hopefully the introduction of the Construction Contracts Act will foster an atmosphere of mutual respect and professionalism within the industry.
“When it comes to the private sector, we like to think that our clients choose us first because we have a good track record on quality and reliability as well as health and safety.”
Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd has vast experience in commercial, public sector and residential development and is proud of its reputation for the dedicated attention to detail within their project management, as well as the quality of their work.
They strive to infuse every aspect of the business with a focused commitment to safety and quality standards.
The company was started from humble beginnings by John Carroll and John O’Keeffe (RIP) back in 1988 and today employs 15 full-time staff.
John O’Keeffe passed away a couple of years back and since that time, John Carroll has come to assume control of the business. He gave us some detail on his own background and how Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd has become a leading construction outfit in the Midlands.
“I’m a Civil Engineer qualified from UCG in the seventies and I set-up the company with John O’Keeffe in 1988,” he outlined. “We started off focusing on local authority housing and when the boom came we were beginning to concentrate on bigger projects. We only got involved in a limited amount of development ourselves but suffered from the recession indirectly as clients we worked for were unable to pay us.
“We, like many other building contractors stayed in business during those dark years not for profit but to try and retain a business structure. This was achieved by using up the resources built up in better times.
“When the recession began to lift we then had the problem of qualifying to tender for projects, particularly in relation to the turnover requirements. So for us this requirement slowed down growth particularly in relation to government contracts.
“Thankfully, things are starting to turn around and we are working on several different projects right now.”
The company has a reputation in the Midlands for being a contactor which completes high quality projects on time and within the project budget.
It’s this reputation which has helped keep them in the construction game for almost 30 years and, as John explained, times are getting busy again.
“At the moment, we have a school project in Tullamore, a joint venture with Killeen Civil Engineering, Portlaoise which is valued at €4million and another school in Ballyroan in Co Laois at €2million which is close to completion,” he said. “McOH Architects are the architects on both jobs and we have also started a refurbishment job at Portlaoise Hospital for the HSE, so we’re kept busy.”
Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd is also known for having won an OPUS award six years ago, which was a fantastic honour for the Laois-based firm. The company proudly accepted the gong at the 2010 Architectural & Construction awards for the Oak Leaf Place redevelopment project in Portlaoise, which was in conjunction with Evelyn Duff Architects.
“It was a very complex regeneration project in Portlaoise for Laois County Council and that won us the OPUS award,” said the Managing Director.
“In more recent times we have been doing some smaller schemes for local authorities such as our scheme in Banagher for Paul Keogh Architects and Offaly County Council.”
Educational projects have been the theme for many construction companies since the recession kicked in around 2008 and Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd have been occupied with their fair share since that time.
As John explained, it hasn’t been all that easy securing the projects but we have just secured a school extension project at Newbridge College, with Fitzgibbon McGinley Architects, which is just on site as of Jan 2017.
“Prices are very competitive out there, especially when it comes to school projects,” he said. “Different people take different approaches and we have our own.
“We were heavily involved in residential projects before the crash and completed many schemes of varying sizes such as 63 houses in Willow Grove, Mountmellick, for Laois County Council and 75 units in County Laois for Kellyville Ltd. We look forward to restarting residential construction now that the housing shortage is being tackled.
“As a Midlands’ contractor we are acutely aware of the fact that development is heavily focused in the Dublin area which is having detrimental effects on rural communities and as a consequence for the regional construction industry. The dearth of development together with the scarcity and cost of finance are the major inhibitors to the growth of construction in the Midlands.”
There has been an upward trend as of late and John and co hope that it will continue, as their reputation for quality projects stays strong.
Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd
Address: The Green, Clonaslee, Co Laois
Tel: + 353 (0)57 86 48321
Web: carrollokeeffe.com
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, February 2017, Vol 3 No 2
