For coming up on 20 years, Finna Construction has been delivering industry-leading building excellence across all sectors. We travelled to Mayo and touched base with director Concepta Lydon to discuss the current well-being of this exceptional, multifaceted, family-run construction company.
Since its genesis in 2003, Finna Construction has completed a diverse and highly-impressive portfolio of projects across the west of Ireland and into the midlands, invariably providing a professional, dependable and client-focused service on every project undertaken.
With the emphasis consistently placed on delivering quality construction solutions as specified, on time and within budget whilst taking close consideration of Health & Safety, performance and sustainability, Finna Construction boasts a proven track record of completing a vast range of projects for private and public clients alike, including residential, commercial, education, healthcare and prestigious OPW contracts (often working on protected structures.
From modern, efficient and value-added new builds to extensions, refurbishments and maintenance, Finna Construction have the experience, expertise and personnel to consistently excel on all projects varying in size and complexity, with quality, attention to detail and teamwork always to the fore.
“We pride ourselves on giving a quality service, delivered with the utmost respect for our clients,” states Concepta Lydon, who founded the company alongside her husband Vincent almost 20 years ago. “A big part of giving clients quality and value for money is having trustworthy, loyal and committed staff all working towards a common goal. We’re very lucky in that respect as everybody here pulls together to form a great team.”
While the hands-on directors offer the invaluable personal touch that is synonymous with an authentic family business, a coordinated, professional and progressive approach from the office staff and site crews ensures complete control of every project from start to finish – and therefore optimal results:
“Our site managers have all the resources they need,” Concepta continues. “We have an excellent purchasing department that buys materials for them and they are great at networking and have built up strong relationships with suppliers. We also have a great finance team; money is collected when it should be and paid out when it should be and that all leads to a more robust operation.
“Meanwhile, our project management team are accommodating, polite and liked by clients and subcontractors. Our procurement team are fully up to speed in terms of both tendering and working on live projects. We have two full-time QS’s and one assistant QS and they know exactly what’s going on out on site so we can have total confidence in what we are doing. In the prevailing economic environment, we keep the risk as low as possible and make sure we are covered.”
In terms of recent and current projects, Finna Construction are active and busy across all sectors, including education, healthcare, commercial and residential. They have handed over two substantial projects for the Department of Education – namely a single-storey extension to Coola Post Primary School in Sligo and a five-classroom extension to St Joseph’s CBS, Nenagh, County Tipperary.
For the OPW, they completed a major demolition and extensive refurbishment of a protected structure in Tuam, which has been transformed into the Department of Social Protection’s new head office. This fantastic €3 million project reimagines and reanimates an iconic building in the centre of the town, which now serves as a one-stop shop for social welfare services.
An interesting ongoing project, which is scheduled to be finished shortly after Christmas, is the €5.5m demolition, refurbishment and extension of the OPW’s regional office in Headford to deliver a state-of-the-art building which will accommodate 50 staff and represents a landmark development for the town.
In healthcare, Finna Construction are delivering a much-needed extension to Ennistymon Community Hospital in County Clare on behalf of the HSE. As for emergency works carried out during the height of the pandemic, Concepta reflects: “We worked with local authorities in retrofitting and handing over homes to vulnerable residents, to make sure they were housed comfortably.
“We’ve also just handed over 45 retrofitted homes to Laois County Council. These homes are across two housing estates and have been given a complete energy upgrade including heat pumps, insulation, new double-glazing windows and doors, etc.”
Due to their outstanding reputation for delivering industry-leading solutions, Finna Construction are in big demand and they enjoy an excellent record in securing and completing major projects. Elsewhere, the ink is barely dry on the contract for a brand new fire station in Cashel, County Tipperary or the imminent extension to Killina Presentation Secondary School in Tullamore, County Offaly, while the forward-looking and flexible contractor has also been enlisted to construct 21 new build social housing units locally in Kiltimagh for Mayo County Council.
“We have a very good management team built up over the years and have added to that,” reveals co-founder Concepta. “We now have separate procurement, PM, finance and HSEQ departments. We’ve recently done our ISO 9001 certification again and we got an ‘A’ rating in our latest Safe-T-Cert audit.
“While strong, coordinated management is vital, it’s also important to have the best possible people on the ground. On site, we have great site managers and we carry the majority of the trades ourselves in-house, including groundworks, carpenters, plasterer and plumber. Between direct employees and subbies, we could have anything up to 30 or 40 people on site at any given time and we view each of these individuals as an invaluable member of our team.”
In line with current requirement, Finna Construction are dedicated to being industry leaders in the area of Safety Health Environmental and Quality.
“We are committed to delivering our projects to the highest possible safety standards. We have created a culture of safety awareness in our company. Our SHEQ manager has many years of experience in this role.”
As for the company’s ability to expand their catchment area by taking on more and more projects in Leinster and Munster, Concepta concludes: “We’re now is a very strong position to cover both the west and the midlands. As we have built up lasting relationships with subcontractors and suppliers, we can effectively and efficiently mobilise in Nenagh or Killina or wherever required.”
Once these key relationships and networks have been established, it opens up new possibilities and – as a progressive, flexible and expansive company – Finna Construction are always open to exploring new possibilities.
Finna Construction Ltd.,
Cross,
Cong,
County Mayo.
Tel: 094 9545618
Email: [email protected]
Web: finnaconstruction.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, December 2022, Vol 8 No 12
