From 12 minutes 19 seconds.

Transcript: 

Jonathan – RedBusiness

Richard O’Farrell set up EDC Engineering Design consultants in Cork 20 years ago and the company has grown exponentially since then. It has a very impressive portfolio of 1500 successful projects, not just here in Ireland but in Britain and in Africa with 100 employees spread across 6 offices in Ireland, the UK and Turkey. And Richard O’Farrell is with me now.

How are you, Sir?

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

I’m doing good. Jonathan, how are you?

Jonathan – RedBusiness

Very well. It’s lovely to talk to you, but the question I have to ask you is, how come I haven’t heard of you before? Because you’re very successful and very big.

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

I guess we are. We’ve headquarters in Cork and offices throughout Ireland, so I suppose that the work is nationwide in Ireland, plus the UK and further afield so we’re probably doing a lot of export work under the radar perhaps.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

So how did you set this up? What was your background?

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

So, I originally qualified as an Engineer and I worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Cork for a number of years then in 2003, I set up EDC. Quite humble at the beginning. We worked from an office in Carrigaline and then grew to maybe seven or eight people. At which stage we moved to Cork City in 2006 and to a bigger office. And go on from there, we grew up to maybe 13 people in 2008 and 2009.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

So, tell me a little bit about what you’re doing in Ireland, and indeed in other countries. I presume you’re contractors who were brought in to run the rule over projects? Is that right?

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

Yeah, we’re designing. So, we do mechanical and electrical, plumping and energy engineering. So we’re designing the heating and cooling, the wiring, the lights, the IT systems and the energy engineering. So, all the design works associated with the building, so you know we worked in quite a wide variety of sectors really. So, we are involved in industrial life sciences offices, residential healthcare nursing homes, student accommodation, and hotel projects. So, across the full gambit of sectors really, which is which has proved us well over the years in terms of having that diversity when one sector goes down in the other sector it might pick up.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

Yeah, that’s it. And diversity is important, but it’s the kind of job that would really stress me out for it, Richard, because if you get the design wrong at any point, then they’re looking at it for 30-40 years or else you have a very expensive refit. Presumably, given that you have 1500 successful projects. You’ve a good reputation for this.

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

Yeah, yeah, I know. We do, we put a massive focus on process because that’s the one thing as we’ve grown the business, the processes that we use, I suppose have had to go with it and we’re continuously improving process and how we deliver our designs and QA is crucial from that point of view quality assurance is crucial.

So, you know, we have one of our management team who is solely responsible for QA. That’s so important is it’s one of the pillars of our business.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

Going back to going back to when you were finishing up in college 20 years ago or further back even, uh, you know, there wasn’t much in the way of computing power back then. CAD was a relatively new course saw modern methods of construction and you’ve got things on your eyes now where you can visualise what the inside of an office is going to look like. Has it been hard to keep up with technology and stay ahead of the game?

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

We did OK there, Johnathan, because we actually pushed ourselves in that field and when we started building services in early 2003, 2004 we actually started working in a 3D software package. Now we were alone give or take in the industry at that time, so we were getting limited enough buy-in from some other design disciplines. What did push us on a little bit then when we opened our UK office in 2008.

The UK arena was a little bit further advanced, so that actually pushed us on because we started working in Revit 3D in 2010, the UK and since essential size projects. Now that drove our business. It drove it, I mean, we were the first level 2 accredited BIM company in the UK and Ireland in 2014, so that pushed us on, and it opened up new avenues of work and gave us a competitive edge, which we still maintain. So, it’s been it’s been a challenge, but it’s also been a key driver for the growth that we’ve experienced.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned over the past 20 years as you’ve built out the business?

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

People, people, people our industry is literally down to people. What we produce is drawings and then we have to obviously try and explain those drawings and manage the process with clients. I suppose we’re not producing a widget as such, so it’s all about people. I suppose we invest a lot in this, in training our staff in technical skills and soft skills, stakeholder management, and how to manage clients, because look, happy staff generally results in happy projects and happy clients or people. So, it really is a very much a people-based business which brings out challenges as well, especially at the scale of our operations, you know, but it’s all about process and people and training.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

Obviously it you’ve got the best people if you’re going to have an office in Cork. Where is next though, because you’re in Cork and Dublin and Limerick I think it just opened offices in Galway. You’re in London and Istanbul, is that it now or have you have you your eyes on a bigger prize, Richard?

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

Time will tell. Time will tell. It will. You’ll never know that secret. At the moment we’re at the 100, as you said, we’re 103 people at the moment. We’re very busy and we’re enjoying the position we’re in at the moment. There will be further growth And, geographically? Look, I guess other parts of the UK might be on the radar, but time will tell, we have enough to go in there and just at the moment.

Our life sciences industry is going very well and that’s so we’re experiencing market sector growth there, and some of our offices then would have further market sector growth and where we’re well established in Cork and we’ve new offices have a lot of market share to gain yet, and so we will be consolidating what we have for next six or nine months at least, and then looking again further afield.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

Again, well, we might have to check back in a few years to see how you’re getting on, but for now, Richard O’Farrell, thanks for telling us about EDC – Engineering Design Consultants and best of luck.

Richard Managing Director of EDC Engineers

Pleasure. Thank you, Jonathan.

Jonathan – RedBusiness

That’s it. From this episode of Red Business. Thank you so much for listening.