Longford Precast & Prestressed Concrete Products Ltd. has been one of Ireland’s premier suppliers of all types of concrete products since 1972. We caught up with director Damien Mulleady to look at the full range of products and services provided.
Longford Precast & Prestressed Concrete Products Ltd. is a family-owned and –operated business which was established 42 years ago by the late Frankie Mulleady with the help of his three brothers Sean, Michael and Anthony. Today, the operation is overseen by Anthony and his nephew Damien (founder Frankie’s son).
Damien takes the story up: “We have specialised in precast concrete for over 40 years. We started off doing precast concrete and a little bit of construction. We have since expanded into other areas and there are now three separate companies which all come under the Mulleady Group banner – Mulleady Waste, Mulleady Commercials and Longford Precast. The three companies are all headquartered here in Drumlish on the same site and they are part of the one group, but each offers a distinct service.”
The largest of the three companies, Mulleady Waste, employs up on 100 people, providing a door-to-door wheelie bin service covering counties Longford and Westmeath. “We have a fully-licensed recycling facility and picking line and operate a fleet of 25-30 vehicles,” Damien notes.
Mulleady Commercials comprises a state-of-the-art garage facility where maintenance work is carried out on the Mulleady Waste and Longford Precast fleets as well as handling outside work. This part of the overall operation has been up and running for five years and the workshop boasts all the latest equipment to carry out pre-DOE testing, brake tests and wheel alignment as well as repairs, maintenance and servicing of commercial vehicles.
“It’s a full modern garage facility with lifts and pits etc. and we then have an engineering division with presses and guillotines to carry out refurbishments, iron works and all kinds of steel fabrication. Between qualified mechanics, steel fabricators and welders, 8 people are employed in that division.
“In addition to the garage, we also have a store with parts and accessories for lorries. Our location is ideal for taking on outside work; between our own fleet and the outside work, we are kept busy.”
Fleet-wise, the Mulleady Group operates a mixture of Mercedes, Scania, Renault and Iveco. The fleet is maintained in immaculate condition at all times and regular investment in new models ensures that it is always fresh and ultra-efficient.
Longford Precast & Prestressed Concrete Products Ltd. is the original company and the longest-running, with a staff of around 30 at present. Most of their work is for the agricultural sector, with approximately 70% of this geared towards pigs and cattle.
“Slats – for pigs and cattle in particular – would be the main product,” Damien confirms. “We cover a huge area with these, nationwide and also exporting large volumes to the UK. The lay-out for all slates is similar but there is a wide variety of sizes, depths and variations. We cover all requirements. As well as the slats themselves, you also have support beams, precast columns, agitation points and suspended centre passages for the agri sector.”
Everything is manufactured on site and supplied and fitted if required.
“We’re always very busy with the agricultural work, especially in the pig end of it at the moment, where we have a good share of the market. Pig farmers tend to be progressive and expansive and they tend to view their farms as businesses. We have benefited from this and have been able to work hand in hand with them.”
Despite suffering more than their fair share of tragedy and heartache over the years, the Mulleady family remains strong and close-knit and has managed against the odds to nurture and develop a thriving group of companies. It remains very much a family business.
Group founder Frankie and his brothers Sean and Michael all passed away as young men, but the fourth member of that generation of brothers, Anthony, is still heavily involved in all three companies as well as the overall group. Anthony has been the backbone of the companies throughout the years, and his expert business knowledge & experience has played the most important role in the huge growth and success of all the companies over the last 30 years. Anthony’s 3 children Niall, Donna & Brendan, work alongside him in Mulleady Waste. Damien oversees Longford Precast and his sister Noreen is involved, while another sister Elaine was also on the team but is currently on leave as she has young children to look after.
The Mulleadys were also rocked last year by the tragic death in an accident of another family member, who Damien pays tribute to: “The death of my cousin Sean, who had been heavily involved in the business since he was 14, was a huge, huge blow. Sean was the son of Sean Snr. and he was active in all aspects of the business. He worked here all his life in Longford Precast, Mulleady Waste and also ran Mulleady Commercials. Sean was only 48 when he was killed and he had been here literally every day for 34 years. He was completely devoted to the group and was instrumental in building it up. He was a little bit older than the rest of our generation, so he would have been involved before the rest of us. Sean and my uncle Anthony would have run the business between them for a number of years, when there was just the two of them. He is sorely missed by all of us.”
To what does Damien attribute the success of the Mulleady Group over the years? “We have good structures in place, a great team of staff around us and a good strong business. It’s going well at the moment. Of course, you have to work very hard and you can’t afford to take your eye off the ball. Our family would have a reputation for being very hard workers down through the years and that has stood to us.
“The business has expanded a lot over the last 40 years or so. We actually employed 160 people at one time during the boom, in the mid-noughties, when we were also doing construction. But that side of the business has now wound down, obviously.”
As farmers (and others) nationwide will readily testify, Longford Precast & Prestressed Concrete Products Ltd. manufactures concrete products that are second to none. “We take pride in what we do,” Damien concludes. “As a family business, there is huge pride at stake and we try to maintain a very high standard across all aspects of the operation. We’ve been making slats for over 30 years and we’re still going strong, so we must be doing something right.”
“We also do normal day-to-day precast for houses – lintels, sills, capping, fencing etc.- and we supply concrete products made to order for water treatment facilities in the UK. In conjunction with our engineering division, we are diversifying into different areas, using our own moulds. We won’t rule anything out!”
Longford Precast & Prestressed Concrete Products Ltd.,
The Mulleady Group,
Cloonaugh,
Drumlish,
Co. Longford.
Tel: 043 3324128/3324145
Fax: 043 3324264
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 3, August 2014
