Digital system will be key project for new Kingspan hub

The BIM system is being developed by Kingspan with software company Invicara, in which the Cavan company bought a stake last year.

Kingspan has up to €600m available for acquisitions this year, Gene Murtagh said.

“For sure there is a pipeline that we could utilise that level of investment on. Anything of scale will be in continental Europe or North America,” the Kingspan CEO added.

The company reported on Friday that its UK sales volumes were strong towards the end of the year despite growing uncertainty ahead of Brexit.

“One way or another there is going to be clarity on what is going to happen in the UK and that will be very welcome,” said Murtagh.

The Kingspan chief said that there was a pent-up requirement for building work in the UK. “We see projects day-in day-out that aren’t being activated at the moment for that very reason. Once there is clarity there is probably going to be a release of that in any event. If there is positive clarity it could turn around quite quickly in the UK.”

Murtagh said there was no such procrastination in Ireland ahead of Brexit, and Kingspan’s Irish business grew 12pc in 2018. “Everything that can be built in Ireland is being built,” he said. “Residential possibly isn’t progressing as fast as people would like but outside of that Ireland is very busy.”

Murtagh said that building fewer than 20,000 units a year would not solve the housing crisis and that he expected his company’s business in the Irish residential sector to continue growing as overall output for the sector grew.

“It feels that Ireland could absorb 30,000plus new-build houses for the foreseeable future, and I think we are a while away from that level of output,” he said.