Based in Scartaglin & Gneeveguilla, Co Kerry, O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors Ltd provides building contracting services for its clients all over Kerry, Cork and Limerick. Building Ireland spoke with one half of the company’s directorship in Ger Brosnan to learn all about the ins and outs of the business and its current projects.
Business is good these days at O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors Ltd and the plan for directors Billy O’Connor and Ger Brosnan is to try and keep things that way right through to 2022.
Established in 2006, the company’s services include new builds, extensions, renovations, repairs and site works.
As an uncle/nephew partnership, O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors has decades of experience in the building industry and have a dedicated workforce, as well as carefully selected sub-contractors to ensure that they provide a high standard of work for customers.
Building Ireland touched base with Ger Brosnan – the uncle in the business partnership – to find out more about the origins of the company and the state of business at the moment down in the Kingdom.
“We’ve bases in Scartaglin and Gneeveguilla, Co Kerry and Billy O’Connor, who is my sister’s son, is the other director in the company,” Ger outlined.
“Right now, we have three full-time staff and after that we hire in a good team of subcontractors for the work that we carry out.
“It’s all new homes, renovations and extensions and we also provide all types of groundworks services.
“It’s a turnkey service that we provide for our clients.”
Ger himself has been on the building sites since he was young man, following in the footsteps of his father.
In fact, he and his three brothers followed their father’s lead by taking over the family business some 40 years ago and it has since passed on to the next generation, making it a third-generation family business.
Ger himself takes on the project management responsibilities for the company and his experience is essential when it comes to the unforeseen challenges that a new project can bring.
“My father was a building contractor and when he retired in the mid-1980s, his four sons took on the business,” he stated.
“Three of them retired a couple of years ago and I stayed on after my nephew Billy asked me would I work with him.
“Billy is the Managing Director of the business and changed the name of the company to O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors.”
Billy O’Connor was the next generation of the clan to take over and today has more than 20 years of experience in the building industry, having initially started out as a carpenter before getting into full housing contracts.
He has been involved in projects in Kerry, Cork and Limerick, along with having spent several years in construction across the Atlantic in Chicago.
Billy’s role in O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors sees him mainly involved in the on-site work for the company and oversees all the stages of the housing construction.
This past year or so has been one like no other for the Irish construction industry as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government restrictions which followed in order to fight the spread of the virus, saw many projects shutdown overnight.
It saw a delay to many of O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors’ projects and, as Ger explained, they’ve been flat out since the easing of government restrictions allowed them to return to the building sites.
“We’re very, very busy here at the moment,” he said.
“We have a lot of contracts at the moment with engineers and architects from Cork into Kanturk, Ballydesmond and into Killarney.
“We got going back strong after the first lockdown but the only problem was it delayed a lot of jobs, so we’ve been very busy and catching up since.”
He added: “We have a couple of houses on-going right now, including one in Killarney and another in Macroom.”
What other way would a business which recently marked a decade-and-a-half want to be?
So, what has been the secret to success for O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors down through the years?
According to Ger himself, the reputation which the family business has grown over the years counts for a lot in this game, as well as continually delivering projects that are of the highest quality.
“I suppose Brosnan brothers would have a reputation for building very good houses down through the years and I think that stands to us well today,” he stated.
“Over the years, we’ve built loads of houses for doctors, architects and no project is too big or small for us.
“We’ve a good reputation for producing quality work and carrying it out in a quick manner, which I think clients appreciate as well.”
The evidence suggests as much, as O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors is as busy as it’s ever been since setting up in 2006.
Looking towards the coming months, Ger hopes that the company can continue to stay busy and keep its clients satisfied with work of the highest quality.
“It looks like for the next couple of months we’ll be very busy anyway, so hopefully we’ll continue to be after that and also continue to carry out the work to a very high standard,” concluded the Co Kerry native.
O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors
Scartaglin & Gneeveguilla,
Co. Kerry
Billy O’Connor: 087 954 8775
Ger Brosnan: 087 803 0562
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: oconnorbrosnan.com
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October, Vol 7 No 10
O’Connor-Brosnan Building Contractors
