Since setting up in 1994, P O’Neill Building Services has earned itself an unrivalled reputation in the construction industry. Building Ireland spoke to one of the O’Neill clan to find out all about the company, as well as learn about some of their past and present projects.
The old saying that family businesses often turn out to be the best ones rings true when you take P O’Neill Building Services into consideration.
Since its birth 23 years ago, the company has grown from strength to strength and earned itself a solid reputation for the work it carries out all throughout Northern Ireland and south of the border.
Conor O’Neill has followed his father Pat into the business which he started and gave us the lowdown about what they’re all about.
“We’re based in Strabane and we have a yard in Maydown in Derry as well,” Conor explained. “The company was founded in 1994 and we have 70 staff working here at the moment.
“I have been in the office for the past two years alongside Office Manager Peter O’Neill. Patrick O’ Neill, my father, and Peter’s brother is the Managing Director of the company so we are very much a family run business.”
P O’Neill Building Services was first founded in 1994 and ever since they opened up their doors for business they have worked towards earning an unrivalled reputation in the construction industry across both the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The company’s main aim is to serve their clients with the safest and most innovative method of scaffolding and access solutions in the market. In doing so, they provide the services of erection, dismantling, hire and sale of scaffolding and access equipment for the construction industry.
P O’Neill Building Services operates with a team of highly knowledgeable, professional and friendly staff, and they strive to provide a professional service to cater for all aspects of the construction and industrial industries.
Ask Conor what his family’s company does and he gives you the basic breakdown of what they’re about.
“We’re scaffolding contractors and we also work in the building trade as well,” he outlined.
“Pat founded this company 23 years ago now and his brother came on board at a later stage then. Since that time, it has grown from strength to strength and things are going well right now at P O’Neill Building Services with a number of different projects on.”
Past projects have seen the company travelling as far as England and Scotland for clients and they continue to travel across the Channel for work, having earned rave reviews the first time round.
One of the higher profile projects carried out in Scotland was a wind mill blade habitat that had been formed at a site in Methil Power Station in the town of Methil, Fife.
This station had been built as a sister to Barony Power Station on the West Coast of Scotland, in Ayrshire and its windmill blade habitat would be wrapped in tuffcoat sheeting by the experts at P O’Neill Building Services so that a constant temperature can be maintained inside for blade repairs. The site is in a docks yard and the weather is usually very extreme, so this was a tricky assignment for the Strabane-based company which came off without a hitch.
In Aberdeen, P O’Neill Building Services carried out a project which included cuplock scaffolding boarded in three-metre lifts at the new Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza Hotels site at the city’s airport. The project was carried successfully out for clients, McAleer & Rushe Contracts Ltd.
Closer to home, Windsor Park in Belfast – home to Northern Ireland’s football team – was the venue where P O’Neill Building Services spent some time earlier this year doing some Kwikstage scaffolding boarded in two-meter lifts for long-time clients O’Hare McGovern.
So, needless to say, these are busy times indeed for the company, as they continue to make the most from the upturn off a recession which devastated the construction industry in the early part of the past decade.
“We’re very busy at the moment,” Conor revealed. “We have a big job we just started in Belfast for Herron Brothers and then we’ve a couple more subs on for Herron Brothers as well.
“The Windsor Park job would have been a couple of months back and it went well for us. That was a project we were working for O’Hare McGovern, who are long-time clients, and we’re also on the All State Building for them as well.
“We’re also doing a lot of work for Graham Construction all over, so we’ve never been as busy really.”
2017 sees the company entering into its 23rd year in a very healthy state and the hope for Conor and co is that things continue to stay the way they are.
“We have a lot of work in the pipeline as well for next year, so we can’t really complain,” he stated.
“Our work would bring us over to England and Scotland a good bit during the year as well, so we’ve plenty to keep us going and we’ll be hoping for a similar year to that of 2016 with the number of projects that we had on.”
Most recently, P O’Neill Building services took on a project at Edinburgh Law School which included two elevations which have now been erected. Phase 1 saw a temporary roof installed and Phase 2 included a temporary roof being installed over a couple of weeks. Phase 3 scaffolding had not been commenced at the time of print and all works were being carried out for Graham Construction.
P O’Neill Building Services
Address: Strabane, Co Tyrone and
Maydown Yard, Co Derry
Tel: 028 71861234
E-mail: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, January 2017, Vol 3 No 1
