Renowned for delivering outstanding electrical contracting projects within the pharmaceutical arena in particular, Kiernan Electrical Ireland Ltd. has forged a stellar reputation for excellent workmanship across all sectors. We visited their Cork HQ and met director Finbarr O’Regan to find out more.
Kiernan Electrical Ireland Ltd. is an industry-leading, Cork -based electrical contracting company, which has earned an unrivalled reputation for quality workmanship and service since its inception more than three decades ago.
Having successfully completed a wide range of projects in the pharmaceutical, petro chemical, industrial commercial, educational, food and healthcare sectors, Kiernan Electrical complement innovative design and installation with exceptional, professional instrumentation and calibration solutions.
Experts in office fit-outs, clean room installations and energy saving projects from inception to commissioning, the company operates to the strictest of safety standards and all operatives boast a minimum of Safe Pass, Kiernan Safety Induction Program and ATEX certification (qualified to work in explosive atmospheres). Ongoing training is an integral part of the strict, pre-emptive Health & Safety policy.
Kiernan Electrical operate to the highest quality standards and are accredited with NSAI ISO 9001:2008.
Synonymous with delivering cutting-edge instrumentation projects, they are particularly renowned for their work within the pharmaceutical sector, having completed many high-profile instrumentation projects in local plants such as Pfizer, Janssen, Brinny (Merck Sharpe Dome) and Dairygold.
Kiernan Electrical Ireland Ltd. have had a presence on MSD’s Brinny site since 2006, completing a wide variety of project work there. They have been an on-site contractor at Pfizer, Ringaskiddy for over 25 years and have carried out a large number of projects there, with over 70 small- to medium-sized projects often completed in a typical calendar year.
Other notable clients include Amazon, Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, and Tesco, to mention just a few.
Reflecting on the genesis and evolution of the company, director Finbarr O’Regan, who has been involved for 20 years, notes: “The business was established 30 years ago and there are three directors today – Frank Fogarty, Richard Browne and myself. We started off working in the industrial sector but began to concentrate on pharma in the mid-90s. Today, pharmaceutical, industrial, educational and healthcare are probably the sectors that we cater for the most, although we obviously have the personnel, experience and expertise to cover all sectors.
“Instrumentation is a big part of it, and calibration services. To this end, we employ a number of instrumentation technicians in-house.”
Providing direct gainful employment to a crew of 95, Kiernan Electrical is the largest independent electrical contractor in Cork.
The catchment area covered is predominantly within the Cork and Munster region, although projects have been undertaken nationwide. “We’ve worked on a lot of Tesco stores around Ireland when they were expanding over a decade ago but, other than that, we are a Munster-based business. The pharmaceutical sector is embedded here and that’s where we draw most of our work from.”
Regarding the current workload, Finbarr continues: “Pfizer, Janssen, Merck Sharpe Dome and BioMarin are some of the bigger guys that we have worked with extensively. We’re currently very busy with multiple projects at Pfizer, Ringaskiddy and we are also working on large projects at Merck Sharpe Dome through DPS Engineering and BioMarin Ringaskiddy through MWP. We also have ongoing projects with Heineken Ireland and have just secured a full electrical fit-out contract on a new Primary Healthcare Centre in Cork. The fact that a lot of our personnel are qualified instrumentation technicians as well as electricians means we’re also doing a lot of major process contracts in the Pharmaceutical sector.”
Finbarr is proud to confirm that, when it comes to standards and safety, no stone is left unturned. “We’re ISO-9001:2008 certified for many years and that’s a big factor when it comes to working in pharma. We also have a Safe T Cert management system in place, which is the other big standard that pharma companies insist upon.
“Health & Safety is huge in pharma and we have full-time Health & Safety officers and QA/QC personnel working here in-house as well as undergoing annual external audits.”
As for the key to success in such a demanding environment, it all comes down to customer satisfaction, ultimately: “In pharma, it’s about doing work that your clients can have confidence in. Our workmanship is second to none and we also run a tight ship so we can service the pharma sector very efficiently. At the end of the day, it comes down to quality.
“Everything we do is quality-driven – the level of workmanship required to be a contractor to the pharmaceutical sector is much higher than in general industry and those are the standards that we reach consistently on every project.”
Is it difficult to find suitably-qualified personnel who reach the very exacting standards demanded by Kiernan Electrical Ireland Ltd.? “We have built up a good team and a lot of them have been with us for 20 years. We only use direct employees – rather than agency workers – and we kept our apprenticeship programme going through the recession for E&I (electrical and instrumentation). We’ve trained lads up from when they were 18-20 years old and we like to see them progress in-house into supervisory roles.”
Does Finbarr feel that there is scope for further expansion of the business or is it time for consolidation? “We’re always growing but we wouldn’t like to grow at a fast pace,” he concludes. “We could have had doubled our number of employees during the boom but we proceeded carefully and didn’t leave ourselves exposed. We have no intention of going up to 200+ employees any time soon, so our growth will be achieved slowly but surely.
“Cork is a great hub for the pharmaceutical industry and they are great employers. They are here to stay and that’s fantastic. As an example, Pfizer have been in Cork since 1968. There’s a great work pool here for the Pharmaceuticals, with a lot of good graduates coming through the Irish Universities, and it’s a very exciting sector to be associated with.”
Kiernan Electrical Ireland Ltd.,
Unit 15,
Airport East Business & Technology Park,
Cork.
Tel: 021 4310910
Fax: 021 4315811
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, April 2017, Vol 3 No 3
