Margaret Reilly
CEO, Grand Designs Kitchens, Bedrooms & Home Renovations, Drogheda “When I opened this factory, I sat here with my newborn boy — he was beside me here, grand and cosy, with the lads down below on the factory floor,” says Margaret Reilly, CEO of kitchen and bedroom construction company Grand Designs. Sitting in her Termonfeckin office, the sound of plane saws outside the window, Reilly reminisces on the journey from 15-year-old school leaver to boss of a staff of 10, with 27 subcontractors.
“I used to stuff my work clothes inside my bag and go out the door to work with Alpine Furniture before my mother knew.”
But she had been rumbled. And no surprise. Her mother knew she had a child with a mind of her own when she saw 12-year-old Margaret selling strawberries on the road, waving up at her as she sat in the bus on the way to the mini marathon in Dublin.
“She knew what I was like, so she tackled me one day and said ‘You haven’t been to school for over a month’. My heart sank and I thought it was over.”
Her mother, however, backed Margaret in her career choice. In spite of her reservations, she could see that her daughter wanted to pursue her ‘first fix’ carpentry job and that regular school was not for her.
“I had terrible difficulty concentrating [at school]; I just wanted to be out earning. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have known that an apprenticeship was for me. It wasn’t until two years later that I did my Articad and Autocad design, and then my Fetac apprenticeships, and these set me on my way.”
Reilly opened her first business aged 27 and now runs her thriving bespoke kitchen and bedroom construction company. Grand Designs has had three diversifications: “With each pregnancy, I diversified; you may as well,” Reilly says.
Now, she is pivoting again. “We have a new model; we are looking at fitted furniture to suit your life.”
Reilly says that local, loyal Drogheda business is her most reliable market.
“Local and repeat customers, that is the key — treat people well and they will come back to you.”
Family support has also proven crucial. “Before Christmas, I was at the Drogheda Chamber of Commerce with my family — my husband, kids, mam and dad — and we won an award. I was so proud. My poor mam… it was a long way from seeing her daughter selling the strawberries at 12 years old on the road.”
Margaret is an ambassador of apprenticeships and is an advocate for students doing their Leaving Cert and then seeking out an ‘earn and learn’ option. She visits schools all over Ireland, telling them of her experiences. She emphasises students should get the Leaving Cert under their belt, and then choose the apprenticeship for them.
‘At 12 years old, I was selling strawberries on the road — going to school wasn’t for me’