Bright Sparks Find Growth In Lightning Protection
Lightning strikes can cause shocking damage to buildings and equipment but they’re a steady source of business for entrepreneurs Paudi Reidy and John Kinsella. Their business LPI Group provides lightning protection, earthing and surge protection systems for companies in pharma, food and beverage and, increasingly, data centre operations.
When lightning hits a building, it lets loose a huge current of electricity and heat, leading to short circuits, sparks and potential fires. Lightning rods, which are affixed to buildings and draw down the lightning strike’s energy, have been in existence since the 1700s. LPI’s solutions are more sophisticated but essentially rely on dispersing the lightning’s electricity current safely to the ground.
While lightning prevalence in Ireland is relatively low, data centres with their array of servers are particularly vulnerable to bolts from the heavens. A decade ago a Microsoft data centre in west Dublin was knocked off the grid, badly affecting services Europe-wide. That was the same year that the LPI venture, then called Select Testing, was launched.
“Lightning and surge protection services for data centres are our food and drink now,” says Reidy (39), the company’s chief executive. “That started with the development of data centres in the Grangecastle area of Dublin, where we’re based. From there we rolled out across various European projects.”
Away from data centres and pharma facilities, LPI provides surge protection to clients such as the Guinness Storehouse and the National Children’s Hospital. The company booked a net profit of €360,000 in 2019, as trade debtors more than doubled to €1m. Year-end net worth was €900,000.
Reidy explains that data centres occupy the area of most growth potential. “We can provide bespoke installations for clients of all sizes and around half of the business is international,” says Reidy, adding that 105 people are employed in the various operations.
The Covid-19 pandemic has taken some of the lustre away from LPI’s rebrand and tenth anniversary celebrations. “A number of projects came to a halt, and into 2021 we’ll probably do more consultancy work. We are also involved in big projects starting in Paris and Amsterdam, and we actually hired more people last year. You can’t sit still – you’ve got to keep moving.”