Ballygorman Contracts Ltd. provides the construction sector across Ireland and the UK with a range of outstanding services, incorporating unrivalled concrete and formwork, civil engineering and industrial flooring solutions. We met up with commercial director David Muckian and construction manager Tony Coffey to find out more about this exceptional one-stop shop.
Covering concrete and formwork, civil engineering and industrial flooring, Ballygorman Contracts Ltd. (BCL) have a proven track record in delivering the highest quality solutions to exact programme specifications. Their highly professional and proactive approach to each project ensures that a positive working relationship is maintained with clients and the team at BCL strives to exceed client expectations and become a value-adding asset to their business while fully complying with all Health & Safety regulations.
Utilising a highly-skilled team of professionals and a large selection of plant and equipment, Ballygorman Contracts can undertake the most challenging of projects and deliver a quality end product, invariably within or ahead of programme and within budget. By delivering projects to exact client requirements, BCL achieve a high level of repeat business from a Who’s who of main contractors and /or government departments.
The concrete and formwork division boasts an extensive range of plant and equipment, enabling them to complete the most complex projects. The concrete, formwork and reinforcement team consists of highly-skilled professionals with a wealth of experience in all aspects of reinforced concrete construction. Ballygorman Contracts have completed a variety of projects ranging from foundations and footpaths to leisure centres, substations and multi-storey developments across all sectors.
The civil engineering division also carries all the tools necessary to complete the most diverse of civil projects. The civils crew comprises highly-skilled and experienced machine operators and ground-workers with vast experience and have completed a variety of projects ranging from bulk and basement excavations service installations to road preparation.
Meanwhile, the dedicated industrial flooring division was developed to specialise in low-tolerance high-spec industrial concrete flooring and has installed solutions on buildings all over the UK for clients such as Stanford, J Murphy & Sons, Technic Concrete Floors Ltd., BAK Civil Engineering, Target Contractors and Murraywood Construction. A crew of 15 operatives oversees the professional installation of laser-screed industrial flooring on projects of any size or complexity.
Ballygorman Contracts was established as a formwork contracting company in 2010. Its directors are Jennifer Coffey and David Muckian, who joined in 2013, while Tony Coffey is construction manager. “Our family background is in industrial flooring and groundworks,” the latter notes. “But Ireland isn’t a big enough country to sustain a company that specialises in this area so most of that work is carried out in the UK. What we realised is that we needed to do superstructures as well and that’s when the concrete side of the business started.”
Today, BCL is a one-stop shop for substructures, superstructures, industrial flooring, civil works and commercial and industrial concrete and formwork services. “We do everything in-house from excavation and drainage etc. until the final superstructure is in situ,” Tony confirms. “When we walk away, the full skeleton of the building will be in place.”
With so many bases covered, it’s hardly surprising to learn that the company generates employment for a team of 140 people at present, between direct employees and regular, bone fide subcontractors.
In Northern Ireland, Ballygorman Contracts Ltd. have been appointed to deliver a formwork package on Downpatrick Leisure Centre following the successful completion of a similar project at nearby Newry Leisure Centre.
In conjunction with Adston Construction in Belturbet, County Cavan, they have also been contracted to deliver groundworks and superstructure packages on Lidl outlets in Gorey and Santry, which has in turn led to work on multiple Lidl stores throughout the UK.
There is huge demand for Ballygorman Contracts’ services at present and Tony is pleased to report that 2016 has been an exceptionally busy year. “Some of the Government jobs we completed this year included Kevin Street Garda Station and Galway Regional & Divisional Garda Headquarters for JJ Rhatigan – we provided formwork packages on those. We also worked on the Drogheda Courthouse new build providing civils and formwork for BAM and Primary Care Centres in Summerhill and Coolock in Dublin for Balfour Beatty, as well as St John’s and St Paul’s School in Drogheda, the Charlemont Regeneration Project along the canal in Dublin 2 and all finished concrete to a very high standard on three blocks of student accommodation at NUI Maynooth.
“Groundworks-wise, we are always very steady. We pick and choose our projects carefully and try to deliver groundworks where we are also doing formwork, as the two services complement one another as a package and main contractors really appreciate this as it’s a nice clean cut.”
All in all, the business is performing exceptionally well, which is a remarkable achievement considering that the construction sector in Ireland as a whole is slowly emerging from a long recession: “We’ve been pushing on since David came on board from Walls Construction, where he was Senior QS and knew the market very well with regards to tendering, and that gave us the opportunity to get into more largescale works,” says Tony.
To what does the Donegal man attribute the remarkable success of the business? “Low overheads are important so that you aren’t pressured into taking on works just to cover running costs,” he states. “We have a policy to purchase plant instead of hiring, especially in formwork, and not hire anything unless it is something that is rarely used. This reduces the risk of incurring non-productive hire bills when a project is delayed.
“We also insist on regular payments because cash flow is king. Once you have positive cash flow, it allows everything to function properly and we can focus on our core business.
“And everybody in management is very hands-on, which again decreases overheads – Jennifer looks after all the accounts, David handles QS and tendering and reviews the accounts, our contracts managers Nick Glackin (mainland UK) and Emmett O’Brien (Ireland) take care of daily operations, while I look after plant and labour supply on the ground, where we have an excellent crew of foremen and construction operatives. The business is extremely well-structured and we are very happy with the standard of foremen and contracts managers currently working with us.
“Health & Safety is also crucially important. We scored 99.8% from our insurance company in our last safety audit and we have experienced working in some of the most high-profile, safety-conscious projects for various main contractors in Ireland on developments for blue chip corporations including Intel, Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Google – if you can work in those places, you can work anywhere.”
Looking to the future, Tony is confident that – with a keen emphasis maintained on quality and professionalism across the board – Ballygorman Contracts Ltd. will continue to thrive: “The formwork will probably level off at around the present output but there’s definitely further scope to expand the groundworks and civil engineering side of it,” he concludes. “We are projecting growth and we intend to employ an additional contracts manager as well as a Senior QS and a Junior QS in the next twelve months.
“The main problem facing us next year will be trying to source more good quality labour because there are a lot of good Irish men working in Australia and Sweden and other countries around the world but rates and incentives need to improve in order to entice them back home to Ireland.”
Ballygorman Contracts Ltd.,
Tullyallen, Drogheda, County Louth.
Tel: 041 9720094
Mobile: 087 0611506
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.ballygormancontracts.com
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, November/December 2016, Vol 2 No 7
