When it comes to tree removal and cutting, few outfits are more professional and reliable than Cedar Tree Services up in Co Donegal. Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with company co-owner Jason McDaid to learn more about the business.
The tree service industry is one of those where safety is paramount and for Donegal native Jason McDaid it is a motto that he has always abided by.
Involved in the business all of his working life, Jason took the initiative to go out on his own eight years back and co-founded Cedar Tree Services, which now primarily carries out contract work for the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) all year round.
Jason and fellow co-owner Kevin Dolan have been immersed in the business ever since and the former gave us some insight into the ins and outs of Cedar Tree Services.
“We’re based in Ballybofey in Co Donegal and we’re established since 2008,” explained Jason.
“We’ve four staff working here at present and myself and Kevin Dolan are the co-owners of the company. Since we founded it we’ve started working for ESB and it has kept us fairly busy down through these last few years.”
Having got up and running in the middle of an economic downturn, being able to report busy times nowadays is certainly a positive for Jason and Kevin’s company and something to build on over the ensuing years.
The services that they provide see them going out and braving the conditions that others won’t or struggle to cope in, which is a primary reason, along with reliability and efficiency, as to why ESB have continued to renew their contracts with Cedar Tree Services over the past eight years.
“Basically what we do is cut and clear trees. When there’s a bad storm we’d be called out to remove or cut down trees that have damaged power-lines,” Jason stated.
“We’ve had contracts going with ESB since 2008 and they’ve been renewed every couple of year since that. So we are kept busy with those contacts.”
Jason’s background in tree service works starts back to when he was a teenager and he feels his experience allows him to tackle almost any job, provided that it’s safe.
Indeed the McDaid family name is one that’s synonymous with tree cutting and clearing back from the days when Jason’s father first started out in the industry and, as the years, have rolled by his son has followed in his footsteps.
“My father had his own tree service company and I would have started working for him when I was 16 or 17 once I came out of school,” he explained.
“I haven’t really been involved in much else kind of work. I’ve been doing this all of my life, so it made sense in 2008 to go into a joint business with Kevin.”
Jason is happy to report that he has been working for himself since that time and intends to keep doing so with another contract from ESB hopefully around the corner.
“I’m happy to be working for myself since then (2008) and have done a couple of private jobs mostly around Donegal in that time as well,” he said.
“But we’re preoccupied with our work with ESB at the moment and during the storms last year we were down in Tipperary and Cork, so we go where ever they need to send us. A lot of our work would be in Donegal though and the weather up here tends to keep us busy at times.”
While spring isn’t the busiest time of year for Cedar Tree Services, different days still tend to bring up different projects for the business.
For Jason, it’s a job that sees him on call 24 hours a day and seven days a week, which means that they are never overly busy or overly quiet, and that’s something that he has grown accustom to.
“You sort of just keep ticking away every day and some days are definitely busier than others,” he said.
“Obviously, big storms are the busiest times of year for us and on the normal days we are mostly kept steady. You could be called out at any time and you just have to be ready to go whenever you get that call.”
The knock on effect that the downturn had would have certainly influenced some of the ESB contracts that were dished out to tree service companies all across the country.
Despite having only started up in 2008, Jason and Kevin continued to earn the contracts year upon year and that in itself speaks volumes about the stellar work going on at Cedar Tree Services.
“Business is middling right now,” Jason confirmed. “The downturn did hit us alright and ESB would have been way quieter during the recession, with not as many contracts going. Thankfully, we got them though.
“It’s all contract tender work we’re doing now and luckily enough we’ve been able to get those contracts over the last eight years.”
Along with reliability and efficiency in their work, safety is another huge aspect of the business and the company boast a proud record when it comes to safety.
For Jason, having all the right paperwork and certificates for carrying out each job is a must and another reason why their clientele choose his company.
“Safety is a major part of this business, no doubt about it,” he outlined. “We all have the certificates here and you have to have them when you’re doing work for a company like ESB.”
Four months into 2016 and the hope for Jason and co now will be to keep ticking over as they are and land a new contract with ESB.
“Hopefully we get the new contract now and continue to keep our heads down and stay busy this year,” he concluded.
Cedar Tree Services
Address: 16 The Park,
Blue Cedars, Ballybofey,
Co Donegal
Mob: 086 3219655
Fax: 074 9190302
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 5, June 2016
