Longford Couple With Steely Determination

Family businesses such as Kiernan Structural Steel feature strongly in the eight ‘Industry’ category contenders for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, writes Robert O’Brien

Metal bashers can struggle to reach the top table at the EY entrepreneur awards, but Frank and Dolores Kiernan must be in with a good shout this year. Not only is Kiernan Structural Steel a rags-toriches story, but the 60-something founders are still at the helm and coming off a banner year of profit after three decades on the go.

Structural steel is the skeleton for buildings and Frank Kiernan (65) got to know the trade through the apprenticeship route. Co-director and shareholder Dolores was raised in a country shop and pub and joined her husband in the business when it was established in 1989.

The opportunity was the demand for new agricultural buildings on the back of a government grants scheme.

The enterprise has since evolved into one of Ireland’s leading steel manufacturing companies, with a 15,000 square-metre facility that deploys the latest robotics. Clients span agri, pharma, data centres, food processing and warehousing.

Says the firm: “The company can undertake a full construction from foundations to a weathered building, and many other services and products, including structural engineering design, steel detailing, steel fabrication, fire intumescent

Frank and Dolores Kiernan, Kiernan Structural Steel

painting, erection, cladding and roofing, and floor metal decking.”

Frank Kiernan and his wife are familiar with business adversity. Ireland’s property crash a decade ago hit the company hard, with turnover plunging by 60% through 2009. New worth of €4.9m in 2008 had dwindled to €0.6m four years later, though since 2013 it has been onwards and upwards.

In the year to September 2019, Kiernan Structural Steel Ltd (KSS) had turnover of €36m, and net operating cashflow was €4.3m. Yearend net worth was €10.9m, three times as large as the figure recorded four years earlier. Balance sheet cash last year was €3.4m, and the accounts disclose €10.5m investment in plant and machinery over the years. KSS had 113 people on the payroll last year and another 38 employed in sister company Kiernan Site Services, where sons Francis and John are directors.

KSS’s fortunes are tied to foreign direct investment, which is on pause due to Covid-19, so the current year may not be as bountiful. According to the Kiernans: “Prayer plays a big part in our life, and thankfully, so many of them have been answered.”

Neil and Paul Fitzgibbon, the EY award nominees representing Tralee family business Ard Ri Group, certainly don’t lack for energy and ambition. Ard Ri of course is Irish for ‘high king’ and the Fitzgibbon clan aim to be more than kings of the Kingdom.

The brothers, who for fun indulge in swims around Bandon Bay, declare that by 2025 they will be one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of homeware products in the European Union. “By 2030 we aim to be one of the biggest manufacturers and distributors of quality homewares in the world,” they add.

Not bad for a venture that has its origins with their father Noel Fitzgibbon, who started Ard Ri Marble in 1989 with five staff to manufacture handcrafted fireplaces. Noel passed the torch to his two sons in 2007, and they transformed the business by deciding to manufacture the company products in Guangdong in China.

They explain: “One of the family learned Mandarin and moved to China. We knew that if we could get control of our supply chains we could control and master product quality, delivery and output. We now have two large factories in China employing 550 people.”

Ard Ri has two main product lines: Deanta Doors, which offers a large range of internal doors, and Henley Stoves, a range of built-in and free-standing room heaters, and boiler stoves. The UK is the main market and the company says it ships 100 containers from China to Ireland and the UK every month.

At Manor West Retail Park in Tralee, the company has established Fitzgibbon Interiors, a superstore that offers not just the stoves but also sofas, baths, flooring, bedding, artificial plants, garden furniture and even pizza ovens.

The company booked a net profit of €3m in 2018, the same as the year before, and year-end net worth was €21m. The one blot in the copybook for EY judges might be the 13% fall in turnover in 2018 to €23.7m, with net cash from operating activities down to €1.7m from €4.4m due to an increase in stocks and debtors.

Still, the expansion has been remarkable, not least because it was all funded from debt. One crunch moment was a cash squeeze when the firm ramped up in the UK. The brothers say they had to remortgage their homes to get over this obstacle.

SSeamus O’Hara, Carlow Brewing Company

eamus O’Hara has been brewing up a storm in Carlow since 1996. The founder of Carlow Brewing Company is one of the most successful Irish enterprises to tap into the fashion for craft beer. Producing the O’Hara range of stouts, ales and lagers, Carlow Brewing’s beers are exported to over 20 countries.

In the year to March 2019, Carlow Craft Brewery Ltd increased turnover by 24% to €10m and had net worth of €6.4m. Aside from the range of draught and bottled brews, the company produces private label beverages for supermarket chains. The business has a bar in Kilkenny and O’Hara is also the owner of Urban Brewing, a brewery/bar and restaurant venture located in the CHQ building in Dublin’s IFSC.

A Carlow native, O’Hara (56) established Carlow Brewing in 2011 and raised €2.5m from EIIS investors in 2015. In 2017, the Carlow entrepreneur wedded his business to Spanish brewer Hijos De Rivera, which acquired a one-third shareholding for €2.7m. According to O’Hara, the strategy behind that deal was to open up more export channels for the Irish beers.

Ireland is renowned for its building expertise and Errigal Contracts is a star performer in the sector. Established in 1996, the company specialises in constructing partition systems, external facades, interior fit-outs and ceilings. The two business owners are founders Cormac McCloskey (pictured) and Damian Treanor, with McCloskey going forward for the EY award.

McCloskey (48) credits his family’s background in farming and construction in Derry as setting him on the path to entrepreneurialism – a journey that was hastened after he was made redundant in his early 20s. To date, Errigal Contracts has completed c.320 construction and fit-out projects. The company was involved in the restoration of Adare Manor Hotel and other hospitality clients include Hilton, Novotel, Jurys, Maldron, Clayton and Ibis.

Commercial projects have included Aviva and Wembley stadiums and numerous shopping centres and retail outlets in Ireland, the UK and Europe. Errigal is also tapped for development projects involving pharma companies, apartment builds, data centres, hospitals and universities.

Errigal Contracts operates from Dungiven in Co. Derry, Monaghan and London, and headcount increased to 440 in 2019 from 290 the year before, as turnover expanded by 36% to €109m. Pre-tax profit was €9m, a 70% improvement on 2018. A measure of McCloskey’s risk appetite is that Errigal’s total liabilities doubled through 2019 to €35m.

According to McCloskey: “I think a recession is inevitable, but I’m confident that our industry will be back and thriving in three years’ time. I have an innate fear of failure and of letting people down, so that keeps me going and committed to always doing my best.”