Established in 1961, MJ Clarke & Sons Ltd is one of Ireland’s longest-established building contractors and building maintenance providers. It has come a long way since Michael Clarke, who remains actively involved at the age of 84, sold his Volkswagen Beetle in order to set up his own building firm.
Having completed his carpentry apprenticeship with Meagher & Murphy Building Contractors, Michael had great ambitions for himself and wanted to build a company where he would be proud to associate his name with every job he undertook. So, the business was started, with a personal commitment to produce quality workmanship, to provide excellent customer service and to employ only the best men and women who would share his values.
Over 58 years later, the Rathfarnham-based company continues to go from strength to strength, having survived several national economic boom and busts by continually adapting and investing to deliver the evolving needs of customers, whilst all the time staying true to its core beliefs.
Over the years, the general building contracting side of the business has completed projects on large, high-profile sites, working with some of the country’s best clients, architects and project management organisations, in Government buildings as well as completing refurbishment residential works for high-profile members of the judiciary, Ireland’s biggest rock stars and celebrities.
In its hay day, the company built several Bank of Ireland branches from the ground up, and carried out large fit-outs in others, all over Ireland. It also developed the shopfitting side of the business, working for several retail chains nationwide.
The family-run business survived the most recent recession by refocussing its efforts on smaller projects – under the €1m value range. By bringing the learnings and experience built up working on the vast, complicated projects to smaller projects, they bring added value of logistical and project management experience to the more modest refurbishment, fit-out and building projects.
The company now works across complicated projects, in occupied environments, healthcare facilities, hospitals, embassies, pharmaceutical plants and residential properties. Sample projects over the last few years include:
Temple Bar Cultural Trust – 44 Essex St, Dublin 2
Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology
Church of Ireland – Taney Parish, Dundrum
National Maritime Museum, Dun Laoghaire
Beaux Lane House, Dublin 2
Northwood Court, Santry, Dublin 9
10 South Anne St, Dublin 2
Hazelbrook Square, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14
Central Remedial Clinic, Clontarf
Johnstown Shopping Centre
St Luke’s Hospital, Rathgar, Dublin 6
Law Society
Failte Ireland
MJ Clarke’s set up its maintenance business about 35 years ago, originally as a complimentary service to assist its biggest client at the time, Bank of Ireland, who they provided a callout service to help out after break-ins, floods and other crises that occurred outside business hours.
It developed this service offering and is now arguably the biggest building maintenance provider in Leinster. The company has unparalleled, broad-based building experience and a team of top-quality tradesmen, who are all considered part of a family.
Clients are from a broad base – large financial institutions, retailers, pharma plants, hospitals, pubs, property management agents, estate agents, embassies and schools. Key partner services are also provided to Ireland’s biggest facilities management companies. MJ Clarke & Sons deliver this service on a reactive and planned basis 24/7.
The office in Dublin 14 is resourced with a team of men and women who share the same commitment to delivering clients a friendly, but very professional service, which is backed up by state-of-the-art IT systems and procedures. All jobs, big and small, are logged and tracked from start to finish, ensuring clients are completely informed all the way through the project until it is complete.
MJ Clarke’s has built up a reliable base of partner sub-contractors who commit to delivering the same level of service as them, meaning they can offer all the expertise of all trades and providing a one-stop shop for all of this work in a building – mechanical, electrical, air conditioning, glazing, carpentry, roofing, turning it into a business in its own right, and now have 14 vans on the road servicing their clients’ building maintenance needs all over Leinster.
One of the key reasons for the successful relationships Clarkes’ have forged with its sub-contractors, and why they are committed to providing such good service to MJ Clarke’s, is because of the way the company treats sub-contractors and suppliers along with its commitment to paying their supply chain on time.
“Too many sub-contractors and suppliers have gone to the wall because some big companies believe that it’s okay to build their businesses on someone else’s money” chairman Michael Clarke says.
Clarke’s are very hopeful that the Construction Contracts Bill will go some way towards protecting sub-contractors into the future. They also support smaller sub-contractors with excellent H&S training and procedures.
MJ Clarke’s have extended their emergency callout service over the last 20 years or so, and have built a very successful maintenance business, and a very loyal client base, again by delivering on the basics – excellent customer service and quality workmanship.
They have resourced the business to deliver a responsive service when clients need it most – as a one-stop shop for all general building requirements – from carpentry, plumbing, electrical, decoration, roofing, glazing and all other general building and maintenance works as well as larger fit-outs, refurbishments and all kinds of building work where clients need the expertise that comes with years and years of experience.
They provide a very efficient service to businesses with the experience required to work safely in occupied buildings, and to advise and plan works to ensure the least disturbance.
The company has believed in growing its own talent when possible, and through the years, has provided apprenticeship opportunities to many aspiring carpenters. MJ Clarke’s management team today is built on some of the best of these, including Gerry Quinn who is a Board Director and heads up the maintenance and minor works side of the business, and Michael’s son John Clarke, who is a Director and oversees the contracts end of the business. John’s brother Vernon is a Carpenter on the maintenance team. The team includes very talented project managers and very skilled and knowledgeable builders – some of whom have been with the company for decades – their skills and experience are passed down to new recruits as they start. These men were carefully chosen over the years – clients regularly compliment MJ Clarkes’ on their men as are ‘the Gentlemen of the industry’.
Michael Clarke has always encouraged gender balance and would like to see more women sign up for the trades. His daughter Rachel is the Managing Director of the company. She started working in the family business after finishing school in the 1980s before leaving after four years to set out on a very successful career in the advertising business where she was Managing Director of Bell Recruitment Advertising.
Rachel re-joined MJ Clarke’s in 2006, bringing 15 years of commercial and business experience with her.
Rachel is MJ Clarke’s representative on the MBCA Executive Council in the CIF and also sits on the CIF Executive Council. She will take up Presidency of the MBCA in 2020, following in the footsteps of her father who was President back in 1991.
Training is a large part of the Clarke’s culture. They regularly partake in CIF training courses and ensure the team of men are fully up-to-speed and hold tickets for every aspect of construction to ensure their competence is always up-to-date.
The directors and staff of the company all subscribe to the view that the customer is king. They carry out work for clients from a variety of backgrounds. Some have expertise in building and some rely on them for sound advice and guidance.
With the breadth of experience their team have across all kinds of buildings – new builds and refurbishments – MJ Clarke’s can deliver this on all jobs, big and small.
The company places a huge importance on the safety of its workers, employers and sub-contractors. It works very closely with Derek Molloy from DM Safety and in December 2018 was awarded ‘Grade A’ Safe-T-Certification for the third year in-a-row. This is a huge achievement and is reflective of the shared commitment to creating a safe working environment for staff and clients. MJ Clarke’s is also accredited by CIRI and Safe Contractor amongst others.
Looking to the future, this exceptional family business is positioned to deliver a fully-integrated building maintenance service to both its existing extensive customer-base and to new customers.
MJ Clarke & Sons Ltd
Whitechurch Road,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Telephone: 01 4933386 / 01 4933387
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Web: www.mjclarkes.com
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, March/April, Vol 5 No 3
