Established in 2003, Kingdom Installation Ltd specialises in the supply and installation of energy efficiency solutions to the domestic, commercial and public sector markets. Building Ireland touched base with its General Contracts Manager Ciaran Carmody to hear more about this award-winning company – from its on-going projects to its hopes for the future.
Business is good these days at Kingdom Installation Ltd and the plan down at company headquarters in Aulane, Abbeydorney, Co Kerry is to try and keep things that way for the foreseeable.
Headed up by the directorship of James Egan and Kate Barrett, the business was established 21 years ago and today employs 50 full-time staff.
It’s a multi award-winning project management company which is renowned for its excellence in the delivery of energy upgrade retrofits, helping to create an energy efficient future.
Building Ireland spoke with General Contracts Manager Ciaran Carmody to find out more about the state of business at the moment for Kingdom Installation Ltd and what separates it from the competition out there.
“It’s been quite hectic for us here,” he outlined. “I suppose, there’s been a lot of recalibration, as I say. The price of everything has gone up by double really with regards to labour and materials.
“People who are interested in doing it, go ahead with it. We are quite busy and we do an awful lot of apartment blocks for social housing in Ireland and do a lot of social houses throughout the country.
“In the private sector, it has been quite good, especially in the Kerry area. We’ve got a good bit of traction with private one-stop shop homes. So, it’s progressing and it’s getting busier and busier.”
Along with its headquarters in Abbeydorney, Kingdom Installation also has bases in Limerick, Sligo, Tipperary and Dublin which service the entire country.
It all helps the company provide project management one-stop shop services for renewable energy efficiency solutions to the domestic, commercial and public sector markets.
As well as this, it also specialises in multi-unit property renewable energy upgrades for social and affordable housing associations, county councils and one-off private homes nationwide.
Right now, Kingdom Installation is immersed in numerous projects around Ireland with more in the pipeline to come.
“A lot of them are private projects,” the company’s General Contracts Manager explained. “We’re working on a large project in Wexford for Respond Housing Association and we’re also finishing off apartment blocks in Limerick for Focus Housing Association.
“We just finished an estate of houses for Mid-Offaly Housing Association and we completed an estate of houses in Clara, Co Offaly for Respond Housing along with an estate of houses in Clonberne in Galway for Respond Housing.
“We’re currently looking at completing multiple apartment blocks for Co-operative Housing Ireland in Balbriggan and Townsend Street in Dublin. That’s the new work that is about to start.
“We’re also doing some large community buildings in Wexford Town for Respond as well, along with multiple private houses in the Limerick, Cork, Kerry region under the one-stop shop.
“So, there’s a fair spread of diverse works there.”
At Kingdom Installation, customers are provided with a detailed quotation, pricing down to the last nut and bolt so as they know exactly what the cost of a project is.
Four years ago, the company delivered 174 or 26% of the 656 homes delivered under the Communities Energy Grant Scheme, making it the market leader for domestic homes delivered under this scheme.
A year later, Kingdom Installation delivered 303 domestic homes through the National Home Retrofit and Better Energy Communities schemes, using the One Stop Shop model, an increase of just under 75%.
All of that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret behind the success of this now very much thriving company to date?
“We offer a full project management service on the sites as well on a full-time basis. A lot of the other companies don’t provide full-time on-site supervision. So, in essence, we are a one-stop shop and we help deliver large scale projects from start to finish,” said Ciaran.
“We project manage it, as I said, right from the very start. From meeting up with the tenants, telling them about the work and what’s going to happen to guiding them through a programme in the works with them.
“We would also give them inductions for all the technologies – the heat pumps, the PV etc that are being installed. We’d give them inductions on how to use the systems and we would ensure that all the works are in compliance with SEAI standards.
“We would also ensure early doors that the homes that we’re upgrading would achieve a B2 or better in order that the SEAI grants would be able towards the delivery of those particular homes or apartments.
“As I said, we’re a one-stop shop. We’ll organise the HLIs, the home energy assessments and we’ll ensure that we will get to B2 or better, project manage it from start to finish and bring in all our own contractors that have to comply to SEAI standards.
“We finish the work complete with safety handover files at the end of the job and, if there’s any issues, we’re always there to provide an insight. We then follow up with clients when the project is complete to analysis the job and if there are learnings we can take forward and improve upon for future works. A lot of clients have stuck with us for many years because we make the whole transition and very simple transition for their tenants, and the biggest thing is being able to communicate with tenants and being able to work in houses where they don’t have to move out.
“So, we do all the works while they’re actually still living in the house and the key to our success is having enough Project Managers on-site, have our contractors doing the work when they say they’ll do it and having enough workers to finish the job on time and on programme.”
He added: “We were told by SEAI at a meeting last November – it was a one-stop meeting – that we had the best pass rate in the country for houses that we closed. We are currently the only one-stop shop with a Quality Inspection Pass Rate over 90%, which is the long term goal of SEAI to have all one-stop shop operators at this level currently the average is 59%. Everybody in attendance stood up and gave us a round of applause, so that’s no coincidence. We’re very big into our ISO assurance, we have accreditations in Quality – ISO9001, Environmental – ISO14001 & Health & Safety – ISO45001 which we are externally audited by the National Standards Authority of Ireland on a yearly basis to ensure we are working to the appropriate standards. We’re very big into micro-managing the project from start to finish.”
This summer saw Kingdom Installation delighted to announce its partner with the Credit Unions of Kerry and West Limerick to offer its customers Low-Interest Rate Home Energy Loans.
Whether it’s insulation, solar panels, or a full home energy retrofit, Kingdom Installation, together with the Credit Union Green Home Loan, can help you achieve a warmer and more energy-efficient home, with interest rates starting at just 4.7% (4.89% APR) for an ‘A’ rated BER.
It all promises a bright future for the company and its customers throughout Ireland and, according to Ciaran, the coming months will be about ensuring that Kingdom Installation’s overall quality continues to be up to the very highest standard.
“Recently, we got our one-stop shop contract with SEAI extended for another two years,” he said.
“Basically, they were very happy with the works that we completed over the last two years. It was the first two years in the one-stop shop, so we’ve learned an awful lot in the last two years and we hope to take that information going forward to be more efficient.
“Our goal over the next two years would be to consolidate what we have, to ensure that all are staff are qualified to complete the task that they’ve been given, to ensure that our quality is up to the highest standards and to ensure that we evolve with SEAI and that we can provide that chain or that service for them in order that they can see the delivery of reduction of carbon usage as well.”
He concluded: “Over the next year or two, we want to consolidate and maybe look at expanding by 10 or 15 percent. Not too much though because we have a big organisation here at the moment and we just want to hold what we have and keep our consistency as well.”
Kingdom Installation Ltd
Aulane,
Abbeydorney,
Co Kerry
Tel: 066 713 5991
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2024, Vol 10 No 10
