IN THE HOT SEAT

with Dave Merriman Director at T&I Fitouts Ltd

Tell us a bit about yourself;

I’m originally from Straffan and moved across the border into Clane where I currently live, I have always had split loyalties, playing football for Straffan and Soccer for Clane! I went to school in Clane and then went on to study Surveying in Bolton Street DIT. I’m an avid supporter of local sports clubs and feel they are an incredibly important outlet for kids and adults alike in the social media world we live in. I’m a passionate support of Kildare in all forms and I’m delighted that T&I is still based locally in Straffan and is supporting local businesses in the area.

Dave, you set up T&I Fitouts in 2010, with the company going from strength to strength over the years. In the midst of a recession, how challenging was that?

T&I setup in 2010, in the height of the recession, we had the choice of leaving for the middle east of trying something ourselves, I had just been let go from a company and was at a crossroads but received some great advice. ‘don’t ever be wondering what if, give it a go and at least you tried it’ with this we used our redundancy and my upstairs bedroom and started making calls. We landed a small project with an old client in Ebay, they gave us a chance which I will be forever grateful for as with their name as were able to open so many other doors. Setting up in 2010 was extremely hard but also a blessing. People and subcontractors wanted to work and were willing to give 110% to any chance they got, salaries were also down so our risk exposure and overheads were lower. This allowed us to be competitive against our bigger rivals. There is always a positive, even in really challenging times! Over the years we received some great grants from enterprise Ireland which allowed us to develop our digital construction technologies which has allowed us to become an industry leader in the use of technology such as BIM, Holobuilder, Smartsheets and VR. We also found the chamber invaluable in linking us with likeminded suppliers and subcontractors which are the life blood of what we do.

With this help and persistence, our turnover went from 255k in 2010 to €62 million in 2022. One massive aspect of our business model has always been thinking outside the box, whether with technology, sustainability or hiring strategy, we have found that if you need to react to a new trend it’s too late, you need to read the trends and position yourself as the standout leader in your sector delivering on it. We have always tried to push ahead of the curve and have an incredible team of pro-active like-minded people without which we could not achieve what we have. The secret sauce is the people! We have always hired the person not the CV, experience will come, work ethic, passion and personality you are either have or you don’t.

T&I recently won Overall Company of the Year & SME of the Year at Kildare’s Business Awards, what can we expect from you for the coming year?

Firstly, this was an incredible honour, to be recognised in your home county like that was amazing, a county championship of the business world! We are never ones to rest on our laurels, so from a business perspective we have opened a new hospitality division which is currently completing the Westbury Hotel Renovation, this will be our fourth division with commercial fitout, data centres and public works contracts, on the technology side we have now developed our own internal software system, specifically built for the speed of the fitout industry which will launch this year and will simplify and speed up every aspects of the construction management process. We are also looking to push on with our carbon engineering division, this team will look to revolutionise the way fitout is done over the coming years, with new innovation technology. We have completed 2 case studies for Ebay and Accenture this year reducing the carbon content through reuse and recycling by up to 46%. We are also rolling out a college apprenticeship programme, we will look for bright and talented people who may not have had the opportunity to pursue college courses or careers in the construction industry.

Climate action is at the forefront of everyone’s mind today. Is sustainability an important part of T&I’s ethos? Sustainability is to the core of what we do. We see ourselves as an industry leader, trying to achieve sustainable construction has been no easy feat but we have risen to this challenge with our Head Office being

Net Zero Carbon and our operations ahead of schedule to be Net Zero Carbon by 2030. We are continually working with Design Teams and Clients on every project we undertake to push for the use of reused, recycled or upcycled materials where possible. T&I Carbon Engineering was setup in 2021 to provide a standalone Support System to T&I Fitouts which can provide Carbon minimization and engineering to our fit out projects. This consists of providing low Carbon alternatives to design elements within a project, to source, document and design these materials and services seamlessly into our fit outs. An essential part of this for the construction industry must be the reuse and recycling of existing elements, this has resulted in remarkable achievements in tandem with design teams in the last year, on projects such as Ebay, Focus Ireland, Bord Bia and Chapter House. We have also continued with our carbon offset strategy, planting a further 89 acres of diverse forestry this year, bringing our current forestry to 291 acres.

Do you believe Chamber membership has been important to your company?

I’m Kildare born and raised so it’s important to me to see our local economy flourishing. Although most of our projects are carried out in Dublin for large multi-national clients, we are very proud of our Kildare base and membership of the Kildare Chamber I believe is in trying to achieve a vibrant, thriving and sustainable local economy that drives growth and prosperity in the area. We use a huge amount of local subcontractors and suppliers and try to be pro-active in the Kildare economy where we can. The chamber opens doors to other SME’s in our filed and introduces new companies and partners within the area that we would not have otherwise known about. It provides a fantastic opportunity for established companies to gain new enthusiastic vendors and new companies to find new established pathways to larger multinational clients. I would urge every local business to get involved if they can.