Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd. is an exceptional family-run operation that provides unrivalled plant hire, land drainage, forestry development, road-making, tipper hire and turf cutting solutions across the West of Ireland and – increasingly – further afield. We touched base with the eponymous founder / proprietor to get an update.
To keep their stunning fleet of machinery busy at all times, Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd. take on a vast range of work, large at small, across the West of Ireland and often further afield. In business for more than a quarter of a century, Sean runs six eight-wheelers, two artics, twelve excavators and three turf hoppers as well as tractors, low loaders, dumpers, rock breakers etc.
All the gear is modern and immaculately-maintained and Sean – who runs the business in conjunction with his wife Ita and daughters Sarah and Niamh and the little man himself, Uinseann – busies himself with a variety of work, undertaking jobs large and small, not just in the West, which is where he built his reputation for excellence, but over as far as the capital.
The business has evolved in such a manner that day-to-day activities can now see Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd. engaged from coast to coast. “We cover all of the West but it’s quieter here now so we have broadened our horizons,” Sean says. “We’re drawing stone to Galway for the railway at the minute and we’re doing a lot of work on civil contracts for Ward & Burke Construction. We’ve also got work in Dublin with Rowlands Civils making sites ready for house developments.
“We do civil forestry work for Coillte and also work for a lot of private forestry companies as well. In the forests, we can do both forestry development – clearing and draining the ground and getting it ready for planting – and roads, which involves cutting trees, drainage and providing the actual roadways.
“We developed a wind farm in Clare for Cleantech Civil Engineering (formerly P&S Smith) in Cavan and we’re working on another contract for them at the moment.”
Meanwhile, the lorries are also doing work on a regular basis for local quarries, drawing stone and tar etc. When you are operating a large fleet, the last thing you want is to have vehicles idle. By providing service of the highest standards, Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd. never has to worry about this!
The lorries and machinery are all maintained in tip-top condition at all times. “They are out on the road every day and you have to keep tabs on it,” Sean confirms. “Most of the repair and maintenance work is done in-house but we also take out service contracts for four or five years with the main dealers e.g. Martin Molloy Commercials, Shaw Commercials, Murphy Commercials Galway and Kelly Trucks, as this is a maintenance-free arrangement from our perspective and saves money and hassle in the long run.”
The fact that Sean is generating direct employment for a crew of 25 not long after Ireland was ravaged by a severe economic downturn speaks volumes about the quality of the service provided. As for the key to his success during the past 27 years since he set the company up, the Mayo man states:
“It all comes down to doing good quality work and being able to deliver on time. You have to do a quality job if you want people to do business with you again. If you do a bad job, you are writing your own P45!”
It was of course the construction sector that bore the brunt of the recession but recently there have been signs of a slight upturn. “There’s a bit more happening in construction again in the past couple of years, although not so much in the West,” Sean continues. “You have to be prepared to travel to wherever the work is. With the fleet we have, you have to be prepared to live out of a suitcase at time.”
When you constantly invest in your fleet, as Sean does, then you simply need to take on sufficient work to justify this expenditure. On the fleet upgrade front, Sean made a number of key acquisitions in 2017, including a new Renault tipper from Shaw Commercials, Castlebar, a new excavator from Breen’s Farm Machinery, Cashel and a second-hand Hitachi excavator from Gaynor Plant Sales in Ballaghaderreen.
Operating from Bofeenaun – eight miles from Castlebar and 18 from Ballina – Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd. boasts a wealth of experience in ground works and has been involved in many construction, forestry and farm-related projects. Coming from a farming background himself, Sean took on a lot of agri-related work during the recession and continues to do so today. He says he would have been lost without the support of the farming community during those challenging times.
All machinery is operated by highly-skilled, experienced personnel and no job is ever considered too big or too small, be it site development, site clearance, demolition, roadways, foundations, pipe-laying, sewerage, footpaths, kerbing, field drainage, forestry development, turf cutting, Group Water Schemes, landscaping and / or agri plant hire work (including land drainage and land reclamation), etc.
The impressive client base which includes Mayo County Council (for whom road salt is transported during the winter), Coillte, FEL Forestry Service, Ward & Burke Construction Ltd, Green Belt Forestry and Woodland Forestry. Sean has worked on many landmark projects down through the years, including the Great Western Greenway walking and cycling path which traverses the Atlantic coast between Westport and Achill Island and the Lough Mask Water Scheme.
Sean O’Malley Plant Hire is also known far and wide for its turf cutting service. Every summer, Sean harvests turf which is used to heat countless homes in County Mayo and beyond. The success of this family enterprise is based on hard work, reliability, safety awareness and a professional, unrivalled and cost-effective service.
Looking to the future, Sean confirms that there will be no let-up in the high quality or wide range of services provided:
“We’ll keep doing what we are doing and move with the times,” he concludes. “We place a major emphasis on compliance and Health & Safety and will continue to do so. Modern technology is advancing and improving all the time, so we’ll also be keeping abreast of that as we move the business forward.
“We’re doing quite a bit of work for farmers reclaiming land, especially towards the end of the year. This year wasn’t great weather-wise so a lot of those jobs got left over and then we got busier as the year went on. The turf-cutting season runs from mid-March to mid-June and we provide that service all around County Mayo and into Sligo as well.”
By keeping themselves busy and dedicating themselves to a wide and flexible range of services, the team at Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd. have made a big impression since the company was established in 1990; the signs are encouraging that the business will continue to go from strength to strength for many more years and decades to come.
Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd.,
Cuilmullagh,
Bofeenaun,
Ballina,
County Mayo.
Tel: 096 51091
Mobile: 086 2586460
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 1, February 2018
