Established since 1993, Kiernan Engineering Contractors has earned itself an excellent reputation as a leading electrical & instrumentation contracting company. Building Ireland caught up with its EHS Manager, Lilianne Magner to hear more about the on-going projects for the Cork-based business and what separates it from the competition.
These are “exceptionally busy” times at Kiernan Engineering Contractors and the plan for the team at Unit 15 Airport East Business and Technology Park, Farmers Cross, Co Cork is to keep things that way for the foreseeable.
Operating with 180 staff, the company is headed up by its Managing Director Finbarr O’Regan and is very much a leader in electrical & instrumentation contracting, carrying out a wide range of projects in the Industrial, Pharmaceutical, Petro Chemical, Commercial, Education and Medical sectors.
Included on the long-term regular client list for the business are the likes of Irving Oil and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Ringaskiddy.
Along with this, Kiernan Engineering Contractors operates to the strictest of Safety Standards, achieving a SAFE T (A Grade) rating and all the company’s employees have a minimum of Safe Pass, Manual handling and Kiernan Safety Induction Program.
Lilianne Magner is its Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Manager and the Limerick native filled Building Ireland in on the Health & Safety measures this business takes and what’s its overall hopes are moving forward.
“I’m with Kiernan’s about 15 years now and, at that time, I was the only safety officer that they had. After seven or eight years, we started to expand and safety was very necessary in nearly all our sites,” she outlined.
“So, over the last seven or eight years, we’ve built a safety team and, at the moment, I have a team of four safety advisors that are based on various sites throughout the county and they carry out safety on sites, including training, toolbox talks, townhalls and they do safety initiatives. We invite other organisations in on a regular basis to talk to our guys about different safety topics like working at height.
“Prioritising and promoting Mental health and wellbeing is exceptionally important to us at Kiernans. We’re affiliated with the Lighthouse Charity club and they provide free confidential support for emotional physical and financial well-being.
“They provide a 24-hour a day telephone number and text line. We offer this to all of our employees and they provide six free counselling sessions to anybody who’s struggling. Not only that, but they also provide six free counselling sessions to any member of their family as well.”
Exceptional service levels combined with excellent client relations have been an integral part of the company’s remarkable rise over these past 32 years.
This is the approach which Kieran Engineering Contractors adopted and worked with through to now with a team which prides itself on having worked in partnership with a large number of their client base since ‘Day One’.
To that end, it’s no surprise to hear that business is thriving at the moment down in Farmers Cross, Co Cork.
“It’s exceptionally busy, very demanding. A lot of projects done and completed and a more projects starting up again,” said Lilianne.
“I think all of our departments from our pricing, tendering, engineering, quality, accounts, wages; they’re all very, very busy.
“We’ve a great team here with great team comradeship and we all get on really well. We help and support each other if someone’s struggling with work or anything else, we help each other out and we’re a flexible group here in the office in particular.”
Right now, the team is immersed in delivering numerous different projects, with two more major ones having recently commenced in Cork and Waterford.
Kiernan Engineering Contractors’ EHS Manager was good enough to shed some details on the current projects: “We’ve just finished the Midleton Community Nursing home and St Finbarr’s Community Nursing Home here in town. Those two projects were with Sisk.
“We’re also nearly completed the MTU HEB One project. We partnered up with JJ Rhatigan for that, so it’s called the Higher Education bundle and focuses on engineering and life science facilities at six technological universities. MTU was just one of those and it’s a completely new build on the campus which is almost completed.
“We’re still working in the usual places on-going like Pfizer in Ringaskiddy, we’re a resident there nearly 30 years now, and Irving Oil who we’re a resident with as well.
“We’ve just started a project outside of Cork University Hospital where there’s a new a new surgical hub building. So, again, we’re partnered with JJ Rhatigan on that and we’re also starting Waterford surgical hub and they’re two huge projects for us as a company.
“They will require a considerable amount of manpower from top level up, there’s several Project Managers on it, several Foremen on different floors. We’ve quality out there, we’ve engineers out there, and fulltime safety advisor, so it’s a huge undertaking and it’s something that’s going to keep us going for the next 12 months.
“There’s other things in the pipeline as well, but we haven’t secured them yet.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind the success of this business which holds such an excellent reputation amongst its clients?
“We’re a very personable company,” Lilianne pointed out. “We’re very hands-on and we interact very closely with the client both from management down to safety, down to having the same team on the site.
“Nothing is ever a problem for us. We mould ourselves to suit our clients’ needs and we’re trustworthy as well. They wouldn’t have us on the site unless we were a very trustworthy company.”
Looking at the months ahead for the business, its EHS Manager is eager to see the already high standards continue in the upward trajectory, but, most important of all, remains the health and safety on the sites where Kiernan Engineering Contractors are working.
“Our hopes would be to continue doing what we’re doing to the standard that we’re doing it, and the high level that we’re doing it,” she said.
“Also to keep our people safe and do our best both with the project from all aspects, especially safety. We’re always very interested in making sure that our people go home safely from work.
“We do focus on our people and, obviously, there’s always room for improvement. So always looking at doing things better, I suppose.”
Kiernan Engineering Contractors,
Unit 15,
Airport East Business and Technology Park,
Farmers Cross,
Cork (T12 YY17 )
Tel: 021 431 0910
Fax: 021 431 5811
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September, Vol 11 No 10
Kiernan Engineering Contractors
