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Investing in talent, innovation and technology has proved a winner for global engineering company Kirby Group.
With over 2,000 employees and 62 years of expertise under its belt, it’s no wonder that Kirby Group Engineering is a leading expert in its field. But it was the quality of its management that brought the company to the attention of the judges at the Deloitte Best Managed Companies (BMC) panel.
The leading mechanical and electrical engineering contractor operates across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe, and works across several different sectors. While headquartered in Limerick, it has regional offices in Galway and Dublin, London, Glasgow and Aberdeen in the UK, as well as offices in Sweden and Milan.
But while excellent service and operations are central to what they do, the company owes its success to people, who, according to CEO Henry McCann, played the key part in its recent accolade.
“There were so many people involved in our BMC application, with credit going to a lot of different departments,” he said. “We were all absolutely delighted when we got the call to say that we had achieved the award. We had long known about the BMCs and noted the calibre of the companies awarded over the years and the rigorous process that they had to go through.”
“We found the application process very thorough, and Deloitte asked some very good quality questions, which gave us an opportunity to pause and complete a detailed review of how we do things and reflect on how we got where we are.”
“We all felt incredibly privileged when we got the notification that we had been awarded this prized designation and got to join the catalogue of distinguished companies that have achieved this down through the years.”
Holders of this prestigious award have all shown that they adhere to the four pillars of good management – sustainability, innovation, culture, and governance – which underline the BMC process, and Kirby is proud of its own diligence in these areas.
“We have always had our CSR policies and actions, which we measured ourselves monthly,” said McCann. “However, in the last number of years, sustainability has come into the fore – not just what’s driving the market or legislation, but also our own people who are the driving in wanting to do their bit to leave the planet in a better place for future generations.”
“Two years ago, we put a challenge-based sustainability strategy in place and hired several subject matter experts. Kirby is one of the founding partners of the Irish Supply Chain Sustainability School and made it mandatory for our staff to complete various training courses. But it’s not just a tick box exercise for us, this is how we manage our business and it feeds into our overall strategy map – so it is very important for us, both externally and internally.”
Along with a new power and renewables division within the company, which helps to ensure that everyone is doing their bit to be more sustainable, Kirby is also making strides when it comes to innovation. And along with ‘building information modelling’ the company has also invested heavily in offsite manufacturing.
“We’re making many products off site in a controlled environment in Portlaoise, which is serving our projects in Ireland, UK and across Europe,” said McCann. “We have also set up our training centre there, as well as our learning and development team. This centre is City & Guilds Award accredited. This is all part of our consistent record of investing in our people. Kirby is among a very small group of companies in the world that have been awarded Platinum Accreditation by Investors in People.”
Evolving and adapting to new technology is essential for business development and this also relates to hiring new talent who will continue to bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm into the company. This is one of the reasons why Kirby has such a strong graduate and apprenticeship programme.
“People are our top priority in Kirby,” said McCann. “In fact, four of our board members started their working life as a first-year apprentices – this is something that we’re very proud of. Apprentices are the lifeblood of our business, and we have over 250 of them across the company currently, with an intake of between 70 and 80 every year. We want to create an environment where people can have a really successful career by going down the apprentice route with opportunities to work across different sectors and to travel.
“And from a graduate point of view, we have almost 300 engineers in the business, so in order for us to continue to be successful, we need to attract the best people, whether that is through the apprenticeship or the graduate scheme. We want to make sure they reach their potential so we feel that the onus is on us to provide a learning and developmental environment for them and remove any barriers for them to reach their goals.”
Still basking in the pride of their BMC award, Kirby Group Engineering continually looks to keep improving and innovating and is keen to always improve and set the standard.
“We are always trying to future-proof the business by providing a learning environment and by creating opportunities for people to grow and develop,” said McCann. “A bar has been set for us with this recognition, and it is a very healthy thing for someone from the outside to come in and ask questions as it allows us to look at things from a different perspective.
“We will definitely apply for next year’s awards as we’ve seen some of the previous winners who have kept their accolade for many years. This is something we will be building towards and working together as a team to continue improving on the success we have already had – and hopefully we will also be able to retain this accolade for many years to come.”
Read the full supplement here: Ireland’s best Managed Companies 2025 by Business Post – Flipsnack
