Since its inception in 2004, Flynn holds a proud track record of successful delivery of sustainable construction projects and specialising in critical environments all across the country, and across UK and EU. Building Ireland touched base with company Senior Project Manager Sean McGeeney to learn more about the business and its recent success as the Irish Construction Excellence Awards.
Next year is set to see Flynn mark 20 years in business and, rest assured, the company remains as staunchly committed as ever to better ways of working.
Headquartered in Glasnevin, Co Dublin, Flynn has additional branches in Limerick, London, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Amsterdam and employs up on 150 staff at the moment.
Based out of its Dublin office is Senior Project Manager Sean McGeeney whom has been with the company nine years now.
Building Ireland caught up with Sean recently to hear more about the state of business at the moment, its recent award success and the overall hopes going forward for the months ahead.
“We’re still finding it busy at the moment. Now, our sectors have kind of changed slightly,” he outlined.
“We started off in business mainly in commercial fit-out, commercial office-based work and we’re now doing a lot of work in critical environments. Meaning we’ve a lot of work in the Aviation, data centres across Europe, Pharma, Manufacturing Facilities and Critical Logistics Hubs– I’ve recently finished a critical project for a Pharmaceutical company in Coolock.
“So, we are still busy in other sectors as well as commercial office fit-out that we would always been known for”.
“We diversified well into different avenues, so it’s going well for us.”
As an international construction solutions company, Flynn’s vision since ‘Day One’ has been to deliver sustainable work environments, empowering its staff to achieve their ambitions.
It has endeavoured to carry out this vision over the past two decade and, right now, business is strong according to Sean.
The Senior Project Manager is currently working on one project for a pharmaceutical firm in Coolock, Co Dublin and, once works are completed there, he’ll be moving on to another pharmaceutical project in Santry.
Indeed, business is strong at the moment at Flynn and, undoubtedly, the plan is to keep things that way right through to next year.
So, that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret behind the company’s success over the past 19 years?
How has a construction start-up grown into want is now a thriving venture with up on 150 staff and five bases in different parts of the continent?
“It’s probably the attention to detail with Flynn,” Sean stated plainly. “Even over the last nine years that I’ve been with Flynn, it’s the personal approach that we have with ourselves and the honestness that we have with our clients. We will do as much as we possibly can to make it as stress free for the client.
“If we have to work late hours to get the job over the line for them, we will do it and it’s that sort of positive approach that has helped us over the last decade or so – the client interaction and good client liaison and communication streams with our clients that has really benefited Flynn.
“It’s the repeat business as aspect of it and a good client base. That’s what really benefits the company as all of our staff are extremely dedicated to ensure client expectations are delivered.”
In April, the company’s excellent work was recognised on a national scale.
Flynn were winners in the Fit-Out or Refurbishment of projects between €5m to €30m category at the annual Irish Construction Excellence (ICE) Awards for its 16 St Stephen’s Green project.
The project itself involved the refurbishment of an existing protected Georgian Structure and the reconfiguration of a six-storey office block.
As Senior Project Manager on the 16 St Stephen’s Green project, Sean was good enough to fill us in on the details of it.
“Flynn tendered for it back in 2019 and got the contract then around October time that same year and the project has a planned duration of around 16 months,” he said.
“The projects duration lasted around 24 months but, of course, it had the Covid-19 pandemic right in the middle of it with some other delays having an impact on the programme.
“The building itself is an old Georgian House at the front and then you had a link bridge in the middle and then the back area was an office space which we converted and increased from a four-storey space to a seven-storey space.”
In describing the award success, Sean himself called it a “great honour” for Flynn especially in seeing off such stiff competition to collect the gong on the night at the Convention Centre in Dublin.
“At a company level, it was great to be recognised for the work that was completed on the project,” he beamed.
“The project itself had a lot of challenges within it that we had to face and, given that it was such a tight site, the logistics end of it was challenging and Covid in the middle of it obviously stopped our momentum.
“So, there was a lot of challenges on the project and it was great to get that recognition at the ICE Awards. The company is delighted with it and, from a personal point of view, I was pleased to be involved in a super project and the quality of the finish is just exceptional.
“For the award itself, we were up against three very worthy finalists, but the 16 St Stephen’s Green project I think warranted the win.”
Looking at the months ahead, going by Sean’s tone, he is as optimistic as ever for what’s around the corner for Flynn.
“As a company, it’s to progress now further in the critical environment sectors such as Aviation, data centres, Manufacturing and Pharmaceutical sectors, but also securing and building on the good relationships that we have with our clients and design teams that we’ve done work for in the past as well as building relationships with new clients through delivering industry leading projects.
“So, it’s basically to keep improving our relations with our current clients, future clients and progressing into more Projects both Internationally and within Critical Environments.
“That would be the Flynn hope for the next five years,” he concluded.
Flynn
Dublin office:
Flynn House,
Blackwater Road,
Glasnevin,
D11 KN66
Tel: +353 1 850 3000
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, November 2023, Vol 9 No 11
