From the construction of Agricultural Sheds and Storage Solutions through to Industrial Units, A Cloke & Sons Ltd’s impressive portfolio showcases build projects at their very best.
A Cloke & Sons Ltd’s background in agricultural buildings spans back to 1979 when Andy Cloke established the business and since then they have developed an envious reputation as a market leader within the Irish Agricultural Building market.
The Enniscorthy based business fabricates, delivers and erects all types of Agricultural and Industrial buildings.
In addition, they stock all types of steel: Angles, Flats, RSJ’s, Channels, Plates, Box & Circular Hollow Sections, Mesh, Round and Square Solid; manufacture all types of Gutters, Flashings etc, Standard or One-Off’s and carry one of the largest stocks of Flat Sheets in the Southeast.
They also supply all types of sheeting: Insulated Panel, Grant and Non Grant Agricultural Sheeting, PVS Cladding, Fibre Cement and Roof lights to match.
Today, Andy is joined in the running of the business by this three sons, Paul, Ciaran and Alan, and, speaking to Irish Tractor & Agri magazine, eldest son Paul revealed the secrets of their success: “We won’t do a cheap building. We do good buildings cheaply!
“We’d walk away rather than do sub-standard work. Our theory is if it’s not right, we won’t do it. We only use the best material and every effort is put in to ensuring that we finish every job right. We are always proud of a building when we walk away from it.”
Paul, who joined the family business in 1986, continued: “It’s a small market and we depend a lot on repeat business to stay running. We have many loyal customers, many of whom have been with us since the beginning. Naturally, we are always looking to pick up new customers as we go along but we appreciate the importance of maintaining our reputation as a company that our customers can trust.”
As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that their services has been in demand in recent times and things can only get better as eligible young farmers start to secure funding under the first tranche of the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme.
The scheme has been highly anticipated by young farmers with grant aid of 60% available for eligible investments, such as the construction of new animal houses and the provision of nutrient storage facilities.
“We can’t complain,” replied Paul when asked how business is going lately. “It has mostly been industrial work in recent times. The last couple of years were relatively quiet in the agricultural sector but it is picking up. A lot of farmers were waiting on news of grants which are coming on stream now and that should result in a substantial pick up over the next couple of years.
“In general everything is picking up little bit, in the industrial sector too. The wait on the farming grants were holding the agricultural sector back but now people have decisions to make and we should see a spread across the sector.”
Work currently lined up includes various grant approved agricultural buildings, two structural steel and decking extensions to two hotels, fitting large scale solar installation to new and existing warehouses and a new industrial bodyshop.
What are the main challenges A Cloke & Sons Ltd face in the day-to-day running of their business?
“They’re the same as they are for everyone else. Market prices the big thing at the minute. A big issue is that there are people out there prepared to do sub-standard work cheaply. That approach normally catches up on them but the problem is there is always someone else following behind them.
“As I said our policy is to do it right or don’t do it at all and that stood us in good stead during the bad times.”
And you don’t have to take Paul’s word for that as A Cloke & Sons successfully gained CE approval recently. The aim of CE approval is to harmonise the safety performance of construction products across the EU and they apply as mandatory to anything placed on the market, whether imported or manufactured in the EU.
Since July 2014 Structural Steelwork and aluminium now fall under the CPR and therefore must carry CE marking to demonstrate that they comply with EN 1090-1:2009 +A1:2011 Execution of Steel Structures and Aluminium Structures – Part 1: Requirements for conformity assessment of structural components, which involves a number of steps that culminate in certification by a third party, known as a notified inspection body (NB).
“We’ve been working on that for a number of months and, as far as CE approval goes, you are now required by law to be approved or to be in the process of getting approved to fabricate structural steel. Unfortunately, there is a large proportion of people not in it so it comes down to a level playing field.
“If enforced it’s a good system but our fear is that it will not be enforced properly and if that’s the case it will have serious consequences for the people who went of the extent of implementing it. Basically, it means that all work has to be signed off by a Structural Engineer.”
The Cloke family also have another string to their bow in Stagecoach stage hire which is Ireland’s leading portable and mobile stage hire company. They rent moveable stages to all counties in Ireland for festivals and other events. They can supply sound and lighting as an inclusive package with their stage units, and only used qualified and experienced personnel.
“Almost 20 years ago we became aware of the need for mobile outdoor stages in Ireland to cater for the growing amount for festivals and events. Scaffold and built-up stages are slow to erect and disassemble. Curtainside artic trailers are unprofessional looking, and have serious electrical and other safety risks.
“With this in mind we designed and built our own first purpose made stage unit. Its overall length is 12.2 meters. With an ever increasing market we decided to build 3 more units: 2 are 12.2 meters in lenght, and the other is 9 meters long. Since expanding our range we have hired our stages in every county in Ireland. Our fleet includes three tractor units in addition to our four stages.”
If you require any assistance with your requirements, feel free to contact Paul and the team at A Cloke & Sons Ltd at the numbers above.
A Cloke & Sons Ltd
Cloheadon,
Enniscorthy,
Co. Wexford,
Ireland.
Tel (line 1): ++353 (0)53 92 55245,
Tel (line 2): ++353 (0)53 92 55800
Fax: ++353 (0)53 92 55455
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 11, December 2015
