Construction firm to create 100 jobs at Irish headquarters
MONAGHAN entrepreneur Gerry McCaughey’s US construction firm Entekra has raised $55m and plans to create 100 new jobs at its headquarters in Monaghan, which will be supported by the IDA.
Entekra, which is currently focused on the California market, raised the money from New York-listed Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, a manufacturer of engineered wood building materials firm, as well as a number of private investors.
Regarding expansion, Mr McCaughey said “the home construction market is the largest and most inefficient industry in the US.
“Entekra’s technology allows us to manufacture energy efficient homes at speed and scale. It will reduce waste and improve quality of the home construction process.
“Our aim now is to deliver 100 new jobs at our Monaghan facility between now and the end of the year. We are hiring skilled professionals in design, engineering, estimating, administration and purchasing.
“The creation of 100 highly skilled jobs by Entekra is a significant vote of confidence in the county and the border region as a great place to do business,” said Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys.
“Gerry McCaughey, a local entrepreneur... has spearheaded this $55m investment in partnership with Louisiana Pacific Corporation. This is a testament to Gerry’s strong commitment to his home county. Monaghan has a long and proud tradition in the engineering sector.”
McCaughey, a former EY industry entrepreneur of the year, was the co-founder of timber-frame construction firm Century Homes here in Ireland.
He sold it to the building materials giant Kingspan for about €98m in 2005.
Though so-called offsite construction methods are now widely used in Europe, the US has been relatively slow to adopt them. However, it is the world’s largest market for timber-framed homes, and projected to grow to €350bn by 2022, requiring more than a million new homes every year.
It’s understood the business is aiming to deliver annual sales of €200m within five years.
Entekra owns a factory in Ripon, 80 miles from San Francisco, in which it invested about $10m last year.
The firm is believed to have looked at building additional factories elsewhere in the US and is likely to expand further in the near future. Locations McCaughey previously looked at including North Carolina, Florida and Texas.
“Entekra streamlines the construction process by leveraging the integration and application of software, engineering, technology and modern methods of construction to consolidate a multitude of tasks that are normally done on-site by architects, engineers, building materials suppliers and contractors,” the company said.