With origins that date back nearly 50 years ago, Paul Leonard Construction Ltd specialises in conservation works, new builds, renovations and extensions in both the domestic and commercial sectors. Building Ireland touched base with
Contracts Manager Garry Leonard to hear more about the ins and outs of the company and the projects it has on-going at the present time.
Business has been thriving lately for Paul Leonard Dromin Construction Ltd and the plans for Managing Director Paul Leonard and the rest of his team down in Co Limerick is to try and keep things that way for the foreseeable.
Established as a limited venture in 2020, the origins of the business can be traced back to 1975 when Paul’s late father Denis Leonard set-up his own construction company in Dromin.
Today, Paul Leonard Construction Ltd has 16 direct staff on its books and a reputation amongst customers for delivering its projects to an excellent standard each and every time.
Building Ireland caught up with Garry Leonard recently to learn more on a construction firm which is immersed in numerous different projects around the Treaty County (and beyond its borders) at the moment.
“We’re based in Dromin, Kilmallock, Co Limerick and currently employ 16 staff directly ranging from master carpenters to stone masons, plasterers and blocklayers.
All of our subcontractors from M&E to bricklayers and plasterers are locally based which helps to give a personalised service and back up.
“I’m the General Site Manager for all the projects and my brother Paul Leonard is the Managing Director. While we do specialise in conservation works on protected and listed structures. We also do all sorts of construction. That would include new builds, renovations and extensions with commercial and domestic projects. We are currently working on some medieval churches in the locality.
“We’re based mainly in the Limerick area, but still go into Clare and Tipperary as well and that type of direction when it comes to our work.”
Paul Leonard first took over his father’s business back in 1993, with Garry coming on board on a full-time basis nearly a decade-and-a-half afterwards.
It was four years ago that Paul Leonard Construction Ltd first got up and running, and the company has been growing from strength to strength ever since, with its full-time staff numbers up to 16 nowadays.
Right now, business is good for the Limerick construction firm, particularly on the conservation end of things, and it looks like staying that way for the next year or so.
“Business is very good at the minute. We’re extremely busy and we’re lucky in with the conservation work in that it’s kind of a specialised area,” said Garry.
“We work with a lot of conservation architects around the area as well. We’ve built up a history and rapport with them, and they’re very good to us and give us the work. We have a few 12 months contracts ahead of us now which is great.”
It’s the ideal situation for any construction firm to have projects lined-up ahead of them for the next 12 months or so and, no doubt, it’d would’ve been the vision down the road for Paul when he first set-up Paul Leonard Construction Ltd.
In spite of the challenges for the outset, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has managed to hit the ground running and grow year on year since its inception in 2020.
Many of its currently projects are situated in and around Limerick, as the Contracts Manager explained:
“We’re currently involved in two fairly large-scale house extensions in Limerick city. It’s complete renovation and extension of two large houses.
“We’re just after finishing a small little estate of six individual houses in Adare and currently work on a thatch house in Adare also.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind Paul Leonard Construction Ltd’s success to date?
How has a small start-up grown into what is now very much a thriving construction company down south with a golden reputation amongst its clientele?
The way Garry sees it, the excellent reputation of the business has been built by delivering quality work and, ultimately, finished projects time and time again.
“It’s really that we’ve built up a rapport with reputable architects down through the years and they would recommend us then,” Garry said when asked why clients choose them first ahead of other competitors out there.
“We’ve built up an excellent reputation here and word of mouth from client to client is very strong as well because we always bring our hopefully new clients to jobs that we’ve done and they always seem to be fairly impressed.
“That’s a big step for us in gaining new projects.”
Looking at the months ahead for Paul Leonard Construction Ltd and into next year, Garry says the hope is that the growing trend of the business will continue.
They have a steady blend of youth and experience within the team at Dromin nowadays and the plan, according to Garry, is to put that into the best practice and keep completing projects to clients’ satisfaction.
“We’re have two apprentice carpenters, so we have range and age from 19 years old up to the mid-60s and it means we have quite a lot of experience along with training the new guys. Hopefully, we’ll be expanding further,” he concluded.
Paul Leonard Construction Ltd
Dromin,
Kilmallock,
Co Limerick.
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2024, Vol 10 No 10
