Established since 1935, The Wogan Build Centre Group is a leading independent distributor of Building materials, and it has recently officially launched its new specialist division – WBC Civils & Drainage. Building Ireland spoke with company co-director Garrett Wogan to learn all about the business, its on-going projects and overall plans for further growth.
These are busy times at the Wogan Build Centre Group and the plans for co-directors Derek and Garrett Wogan is to try and keep things that with continued strategic expansion.
WBC Civils & Drainage has quickly established itself as one of Ireland’s leading independent distributors of Civil Engineering and Drainage Systems and products from well-known manufacturers.
The Wogan Build Centre Group is a third-generation family business, run by brothers Derek and Garrett Wogan. The family have a long lineage of servicing main contractors and specialist sub-contractors in the wider Dublin environs and the many mixed development sites that are under construction.
Building Ireland heard more about the ins and outs of their specialist division – WBC Civils & Drainage when it recently caught up with Garrett to profile the Drogheda-based business.
“We’ve had significant growth in our business over the last seven years” he outlined. “We’ve continued to have year on year gains by having a partnership orientated approach with our customer base.
“Wogan Build Centre (WBC) Builders merchants is at the core of the group and from that we’ve spurred out specialist divisions. These specialist businesses have helped increase our groups service level, product portfolio and technical assistance. Meaning we can offer a more specialist customer centric approach to the many build processes and contractors in modern construction projects.
“So, our growth has come through having a very strong core builders merchant contracting division, servicing large contractors, and spurred off that are the three other specialist divisions that can deal with contractors in their particular product areas.” – WBC Plumbing, Eurospec Insulation & Drylining and the new WBC Civil & Drainage Division.
The company’s civils and drainage division (WBC Civils & Drainage) got up and running at the end of 2020 and, of course, faced into unprecedented times with curtailed supply lines and product allocation and shortages.
The Covid-19 pandemic, and the government lockdowns which followed in order to combat the spread of the virus, impacted businesses nationwide and WBC Civils & Drainage certainly felt the effects, having been established bang in the middle.
Material costs and shortages above all else were the most challenging factors, according to Garrett, who credits the industry experience of the new Civils and Drainage team, headed by Darren Sweeney, in putting in place important supply agreements with core manufacturers and looking beyond Ireland for supply to ensure their customers and their project timelines were serviced as normal. “Not available – was never a position we took!
“Unfortunately, we had a very challenging time in that we started in December 2020 and we obviously ran straight into ‘Covid 2’ and it brought significant challenges with supply disruption, especially in PVC core materials,” said the co-director.
“Look, it was a massive disruption to everything. But, in fairness, very quickly the WBC Civils Team pivoted well and worked with customers and their supply chain alike to meet our extensive customer deadlines. The experience with its many challenges has clearly developed the customer centric approach that the team thrive on. It’s service, choice and expertise – every enquiry, every project, every day.
“Our supply chain recognised our significant investment in a standalone civils & drainage centre with its specialist team and facilities, and supported our assertion that the civils market in the greater Leinster region would massively benefit from same.
“We are blessed with the supply partners we have. It was important we got the support for our customers and the new customers we were engaging with and that’s exactly what happened.
“So, besides the difficulties of that period, we actually traded very strong. It certainly challenged the team and they responded by integrating themselves into the supply chain of their customers, so that any shortages were known well ahead in advance and suitable solutions found. When contractors are in the proverbial trench, man and machine time is money, they only want solutions, not excuses.
“As well as that, any large site orders that needed time to source were known by us well in advance and it meant that we were able to keep most crews moving.
“Now that supply has returned to normal, obviously that pivoting that the team did at the very start has really stood to them and the business has gone from strength to strength.”
And, right now, business is thriving at WBC Civils & Drainage.
2022 has gone according to script so far and the plan is to keep on continuing growing into the division’s third year.
“We’d very strong demand to date, however I think when we got through the initial phase of ‘Year 1’, we’ve since really developed our stock product portfolio and supply chain partnerships – we are proud to say our civils and drainage yard is one of the best stocked yards in the country,” said Garrett.
“However our primary focus has always been to have a comprehensive product and service offering that just makes purchasing civil and drainage material easy. It’s about doing the basic things right consistently. Meaning we can give the type of service our customers expect.
“Below ground specifications with Irish Water, are now a lot more onerous on the contractor and developer alike. With just in time ordering or tight tender deadlines it’s important to have a supplier that has the ability to help with material take offs and understand the specifications that Irish water require in any given connection or run. This is where specialisms counts and this is where we get to add value beyond price and product delivery. Hopefully this is why we have been lucky enough to maintain the customer partnerships we’ve developed.”
At the moment, the company is immersed in numerous projects, Town centre improvement projects, Industrial & commercial park developments and many housing and mixed use starts, all around Leinster. Hopefully that will keep us busy right through to next year.
Ask him what the secret behind the success of the company as a whole has been to date and Garrett highlights three things in particular which the Wogans have continued to stand by since ‘Day One’.
“We have a little tag in here and it’s ‘Service, Choice, Expertise’ in that service is the most important ingredient that any of our sales team are brought through, repeated, emphasised and demonstrated,” he said.
“Service is everything in this industry because it’s such a dynamic type of product range and understanding the customers’ needs and being able to give them the right solution within the right timescale is paramount. So, service is everything.
“Choice is important because in this industry there’s specifications and having available equal or approved specifications and having the availability of those is a big part of being able to deliver on the service.
“Expertise is really a case of making sure that when a customer has a drawing or specification or a need for a certain solution that we know the supplier system that’s best suited to that need.
“So, that’s the expertise that we bring. Understanding their project and making sure that we deliver the right solution at the right price and at the right time.”
With extra warehousing purchased and rented last year, as well as a redeveloped yard, expansion is certainly something that continues to be on Derek and Garrett’s radar going forward.
They are keen to continue a growth strategy for WBC Civils & Drainage and, looking towards the months ahead for the group as a whole, Garrett says he’s optimistic going forward.
“I think we’re realistic about the challenges of inflation but, when we look at our pipeline and our customers’ pipeline, we’re hopeful that we’ll continue to see a growth trend lined with what we’ve been experiencing over the last five years,” he concluded.
WBC Civils & Drainage
Ballymakenny Road,
Drogheda,
Co Louth
A92 YX60
Tel: 01 200 3005
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September 2022, Vol 8 No 9
