Established in 2004, Donaer Construction Ltd offers its clients the full range of construction services and boasts an excellent reputation for both the quality of building services it provides and end result client satisfaction. Building Ireland touched base with company co-director Gordon Carey to hear all about the business – from its origins to the projects it has on-going at the moment.
Business is good these days at Donner Construction Ltd and the plan for company founders Paul Doherty and Gordon Carey is to try and keep things that way for the foreseeable future.
Operating from their office in Glascorn, Ballinea, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, the business employs nine full-time staff and specialises in both residential and commercial work for its clientele around the Midlands and Leinster region.
Predominantly known for working in the residential sector, Donner Construction has worked hard over the past twenty years to forge an excellent reputation and become renowned for the quality of its work and team when it comes to new builds, extensions, renovations and refurbishments.
Building Ireland spoke with co-director Gordon Carey to discuss the ins and outs of the business which he and business partner Paul Doherty set-up in 2004.
“Residential is probably our core business, I would say, anything from new builds, extensions, refurbs, retrofits and energy upgrades would be our main project base over the last 21 years,” Gordon outlined.
“We also have carried out many commercial projects over the years for Greystones School, Co. Dublin, St Kenny’s National School, Mullingar, St Marys Special School, South Hill Delvin, O’Briens Garage Mullingar, Mullingar Montessori, Ericsson in Athlone, Vodafone in Dublin and Alliance Medical in Mullingar and Clane, JL Goors Mullingar, and OSB Mullingar to name but a few. We have also carried out many public sector projects as well, including refurbishment projects in the Market House, Old Tax Office, Arts centre in Mullingar over the years for Westmeath County council.”
The proof is very much in the pudding as Donaer Construction’s project portfolio to date is an impressive one.
Since ‘Day One’, Gordon and Paul have set out their aims to create a company which would build a solid reputation and be renowned for both competitiveness, high standards and attention to detail of its end product. It is focussed on client satisfaction and on the basis of being twenty one years in business and being busier than ever, they seem to have achieved that goal.
Both men spent some time working in the UK building up the necessary experience in their respective trades before taking the decision to start up Donaer Construction together in ‘04.
“I attended college in Athlone Regional Technical College as it was called back then. I did Construction Studies there and then went on to Bolton St to carry on to Diploma. After that, I went on to the College of North London then for a Project Management degree,” said Gordon.
“From a work history point of view prior to Donaer Construction, I would’ve worked in London for 10 years on underground as site engineer and a project manager for London underground platform works and structural retaining walls and that kind of stuff more than residential.
“Returning from England in 1999 I was employed as a project Manager for McInerney Homes for seven years on various residential projects around the Dublin area.
“Paul is a qualified carpenter and carried out his apprenticeship in England on various commercial and residential projects around the London area as a first and second fix carpenter and roofer. Paul was keen to progress and achieve early on in his career taking on supervisor and foreman roles and thus gaining him the experience and knowledge to run his own carpentry subcontracting company for many years.”
Paul arrived in Mullingar in 1999 and set up his company PD Carpentry , a carpentry subcontractor business carrying out various carpentry contracts packages on most of the larger housing estates in and around the Mullingar area.
Donaer Construction hit the ground running business-wise in 2004 but, ultimately, the arrival of the economic recession in ’07 did take a toll.
“Then in 2007, we scaled back during that period and like a lot of building contractors had to change focus from the private sector client model to the public sector and as we all remember it was a horrible time for everyone in all industry sectors, not just the construction sector.
“In the lean years, we did a lot of smaller projects and maintenance work for Westmeath County Council which saw the company through the worst of the recession years. In hindsight this probably gave Donaer Construction a wider exposure and many of our smaller projects between 2007 and 2012 gave us contacts and leads for many of our larger projects in the future.”
Today, business is in a very healthy state for Donaer Construction.
“Last year was probably our busiest to date, we were fortunate to be able to invest a bit more back into the company,” he said.
“We bought a bit of plant, scaffolding, upgraded our compound etc all to hopefully future proof the company for many years of growth to come.
“2024 saw us carry a couple of factory fit-outs, the Parochial House in Ashbourne and a private residence for Robert and Sarah Jane Fagan in Mullingar Equestrian Centre and a number of extensions locally.
“That filled our books for last year and this year 2025 we have contracts in Charter Medical Private Hospital Mullingar carrying out CT, X-Ray and MRI construction works for the hospital. Delvin Stores is another project upcoming and we have an after school building to do for Mullingar Montessori on the Ardmore Road along with various ongoing residential and commercial projects from 2024 including our recent refurbishment and upgrade works in Cusack Park Mullingar.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind Donaer Construction’s success to date?
How has a small start-up grown into what is now very much a thriving construction business which holds a golden reputation amongst its clients?
“We get a lot of repeat business and a lot of new business is word of mouth from previous clients. We also work locally with a few architects and engineers and would be on their contractors tender list for many of their contracts. As a company we are also continuously embracing modern construction methods, constantly undertaking continued professional development through Chartered Institute of Building Health and Safety courses and SEAI air tightness, thermal insulation courses.
“Our hopes would be that we continue to maintain our current growth trend for the company ,that we continue to grow from strength to strength and that we continue to be involved and turn out projects that we are proud of, are of a very high quality and that we are happy to have our name associated with and more importantly continue to have satisfied clients at the end of the projects.
“At the end of the day, as in all business, reputation is key and both myself and Paul and all the staff employed in Donaer Construction will strive to maintain and enhance this in all projects we undertake.”
Donaer Construction Ltd
Glascorn,
Ballinea,
Mullingar,
Co Westmeath.
Tel: 086 234 3554 / 086-3805884
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, Summer 2025, Vol 11 No 7
