Construction Industry Ireland 2006 versus 2011

I recently took out my copy the Irish Construction Industry magazine’s top 200 construction firms from 2006. I was prompted to this by the news that Bowen had gone bust and was keen to find out how many of the then top 20 had since gone under.

Here are the numbers. I took out the first 3 companies - CRH, Grafton Group, & Kingspan as they are not contractors / developers. Of the remaining 17, seven are now gone. They are McNamaras, Pierse, Bowen, Ballymore, McInerney, P Elliotts, and Flemings. The oldest of these companies was established in 1909 – so they traded through 2 world wars, countless recessions, the 1929 depression but they could not continue through this crash. If you take the combined experience of all 7 companies it amounts to 375 years. In 2006 they employed 4163 employees directly with many more employed by sub-contractors and suppliers. And it won't stop there. At least a couple more in the list are being eyed as the next to collapse this year or early next.

We seem to be immune to these figures now but I think they are worth noting. I understand that a number of these companies made decisions and took risks that ultimately contributed to their downfall. But a the same time there has been nothing by way of help for these companies or the industry in general. It has been let down. Granted there is very little in the kitty to invest, but processes and legislation could have been introduced to insulate the industry at least a little against this onslaught. It just wasn’t politically expedient to do so.

I would be interested in hearing views on what one change (capital investment aside) could be made to the systems / processes surrounding the construction sector that would create an impact. Depending on the amount of responses perhaps we can do something with the information.