Coming up on its first full year in business, Rhino Roofing and Cladding in Ballylongford, Co Kerry has hit the ground running since being set-up by business partners Paudie Collins and Pat Ahern. Building Ireland learned more about the firm from the former recently.
It has been a quick rise to say the least for Rhino Roofing and Cladding in the space of 10 months but, then again, Paudie Collins and Pat Ahern were never men to hang about when it comes to business.
Set-up in Ballylongford in Co Kerry, their company now employs 14 staff since being set-up in September 2017.
Indeed things are moving quickly down in North Kerry and the plan is to keep growing the business, which specialises in all metal, bituminous and single-ply membrane roofing systems.
The company’s directors hold extensive experience along with a principle of working closely with the suppliers of quality roofing products, allowing them to deliver projects on time and at the best possible price for clients.
Building Ireland caught up with one half of that directorship recently to learn all about their inaugural year, along with they’re background before starting up the venture.
“We specialise in commercial roofing and cladding which includes metal, pvc and bitumous roofs as well as various composite and built-up cladding systems incl various rainscreen facades,” said Paudie Collins.
“Kingspan are one of the main supplier of our cladding systems and we’ve worked on a lot of high profile projects with them since we’ve started – a lot of them being pharmaceutical jobs. We’ve done quite a bit of work in Ringaskiddy working in the Pharma Industry for Pfizers, Centocor, Novartis to name but a few.
Rhino Roofing and Cladding are careful about the products they use on projects and only deal with suppliers that are leaders in their respective fields. Kingspan, Tegral, EQC, Moy Materials, Mak Fasteners and Sika are amongst the big-name products you can find the company using on its projects all throughout Ireland.
It’s all part of the company’s objective of continually striving for excellence.
The relationships established with clients are important to Rhino Roofing so they always make a big effort to create lasting bonds. Not just because of the value-added roofing and cladding services they provide but also with the calibre of performance and the quality of their work. And when that trust is earned they never take it for granted.
Rhino Roofing always look for ways to go that extra mile and this ethos filters down from senior management through every layer of the organisation. Put simply, they always strive for excellence and take pride in exceeding clients’ expectations.
That excellence stems from the work Paudie and Pat previously did together at SIAC Roofing & Cladding Ltd.
“I qualified in Quantity Surveying in 1997 and Pat Ahern hired me for the Liffey Valley project in Dublin,” explained Paudie.
“We just went on from there basically and after I started I just progressed up through the ranks. We started this business together then in September ’17 and it has been going well ever since, thankfully.”
After cutting his teeth on the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre project, Paudie went on to work on numerous prestigious schemes throughout the country.
It helped him to develop a network of main contractors in the process, and working his way up to the role of Contracts Manager. Some of the more memorable Dublin projects include Wyeth Medica (now Pfizers), Interxion, Microsoft and DCU.
Major assignments in Cork also appear on Paudie’s CV – such as Mahon Point Shopping Centre, Pfizers, Novartis, Smithkline Beecham, and Centocor to name a few.
After 20 years in the construction industry, he has now started up a new venture alongside Pat in the hope that their company will eventually become renowned for its attention to detail, exacting safety standards and an ability to deliver on time for clients.
Pat himself brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Commercial Director’s role within Rhino Roofing and Cladding, having worked on some truly prestigious projects in the past, including Dublin’s Aviva Stadium and Intel in Israel.
The pair’s venture is now beginning to really get off the ground, according to Paudie, having experienced a “slow enough” start last autumn.
“Obviously the first few months were slow enough but after being awarded a large part of the Center Parc’s Project in Longford things really started to pick up,” he said
“We have completed a number of nice projects around the country such as a large distribution center close to Dublin Airport, the now recently opened Applegreen service station along the Naas road and now we have the Center Parc’s project, so we’ll be kept occupied while also keeping out eye out for other upcoming projects.”
The directors haven’t been shy about expanding in their firm’s opening 10 months either and it would suggest that they’re planning big things down in Clounamon, Ballylongford.
“We’ve taken on about 14 cladders and roofers and hired a Contracts Manager a number of months ago due to the workload,” said Paudie.
“I look after the operations end of the business here while Pat looks after the admin and commercial side of the business. Both Pat and myself – when we worked with SIAC – built up a good reputation with main contractors and clients for quality and hitting deadlines on projects we were involved in and that’s contributed a lot in winning the Centre Parcs project.
It seems the right ingredients are there for Rhino Roofing and Cladding to turn itself into a real success story.
Be sure and watch this space…
Rhino Roofing and Cladding
Clounamon,
Ballylongford,
Co Kerry
Office: 068 69 908
Paudie Collins: 087 051 2674
Pat Ahern: 086 171 5202
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, October 2018, Vol 4 No 9
