Exceptional Longford-based family-run company Kenny Plant Hire was a finalist in two categories at this year’s prestigious Family Business Awards 2025. Building Ireland sat down with James Kenny to find out more.
Kenny Plant Hire were in the running for two awards at the 2025 Family Business Awards, which took place in the Johnstown Estate, Enfield, County Meath on Thursday, October 30th.
The annual Irish Family Business Awards showcase the very best of Irish family businesses and to coincide with their landmark 21st anniversary celebrations, Kenny Plant Hire made the shortlist in both the ‘Best Small Family Business in Leinster’ and ‘Fastest Growing Family Business in Ireland’ categories.
James Kenny, who runs the business alongside his brothers Bryan, Eoin and Emmet, was delighted to hear that Kenny Plant Hire were in the running for a couple of industry awards: “It’s always great to get recognition for the work you’re doing especially when you are operating in an area like our civil engineering works which impacts large volumes of people,” he told Building Ireland. “We’re very proud of the fact that we are a family business and that is one of our main strengths.”
Kenny Plant Hire have been looking after their customers around the clock with exceptional civil engineering, construction and plant hire solutions since 2004. The longevity of the business in such a competitive sector speaks for itself and is in many ways almost a bigger achievement than any award could ever be!
“That’s the key to it. We’ve been here a long time and we know what we’re doing,” James enthuses. “My older brothers Bryan and Eoin started the business in 2004 and they’ve built it up over the years through hard work and a focus on looking after our customers.
“Our dad Barney who operated a JCB since the 1960s and then Bryan followed in his footsteps when he bought his first JCB and started working with Longford County Council when he was 19. Eoin joined soon after and they got into water services work, which we have specialised in ever since, alongside civils and plant hire.”
Having started out from humble beginnings with just one digger, Kenny Plant Hire has grown and expanded steadily over the years and decades to today run an extensive fleet of over 100 items including excavators, trucks, vans, lorries, grab hire vehicles, large mowers for football pitches and golf courses, etc. etc.
“Uisce Eireann is our largest customer now and we also do a lot of work for local authorities, the ESB and the HSE,” James continues. “While the work is predominantly in the midlands, a lot of the hire fleet is in Dublin and we also go as far away as Limerick and Clare, so we have pretty extensive coverage.
“In our line of work, you have to go wherever and whenever you are called. We provide a 24/7 emergency call-out service and when there’s an emergency at any time of the day or night, be it near or far, you have to get there.
“We provide an emergency response service for Uisce Eireann, HSE and the ESB. You can’t choose where or when you’re going to get a call; I was actually called out on Christmas Day last year and the year before!”
A skilled, experienced and dedicated team of 20 is on hand to make sure that an excellent service is delivered on a consistent basis. James attributes the ongoing success of the business to their excellent workers: “We’re very lucky to have a great team and a good few of them have been here for five-ten years or even longer.
“They all know what they are doing and we’ve been fortunate that they have decided to stay with us. You’d be nothing without a good team of people around you.”
Kenny Plant Hire are extremely busy all the time. No two days are the same and they could complete up to 50 jobs in a week or more than a thousand in any given calendar year. At the start of this year, for example, it was all hands on deck as part of the major and essential operation nationwide to get the power back on, water back running and roads cleared in the wake of the devastation done to our Ireland’s infrastructure by Storm Eowyn.
Critical to the ongoing success of the business is constant reinvestment into expanding and replenishing the Kenny Plant Hire fleet. “You are always upgrading the fleet of machines and lorries,” James confirms. “You try to keep it all as new and as fresh as possible.
“Because so much of the work we do is emergency work, you simply can’t afford to have a breakdown or any downtime. You’re constantly investing to make sure that everything is new and well-maintained.”
While further growth could be on the cards for this superb family business, James concludes by pointing out that the focus will remain very much on service: “We’re at a very comfortable level at the moment and, even though we’re not against getting bigger, it’s not something we’re going to be actively pursuing as a priority.
“We’d prefer to maintain complete control of our work and to remain at a manageable size. It’s all about service and we won’t compromise on that. We’re very busy at the moment, we’ve an excellent team and the size of our business suits us at the moment.”
Kenny Plant Hire,
Castlerea,
Moydow,
County Longford.
Tel: 043 3322129
Mobile: 086 8878892
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kennyplanthire
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, January 2026, Vol 12 No 1
