Clancy is one of Ireland’s leading construction companies. With extensive experience in both public and private projects, in sectors ranging from commercial, residential, hospitality, education, healthcare and conservation, the company is known for its in-house expertise. Hannah Barnett spoke to Director Chris Chambers and Associate Director Tom O’Malley to learn more.
the competitive Irish construction market, Clancy delivers a high-quality main contracting service, focused on sustainable growth and brand integrity.
“It’s important for us to stay controlled, manage progress and deliver quality products,” said Chris Chambers, Director. “Reputation is critical. And we have built up a strong brand in a small industry, so it’s important that we maintain that. This is a family-started, (and remains a predominantly family-owned), business.
We are into the third generation now, so the plan is to make this as sustainable a business as possible.”
A brief history
Clancy was founded in Tipperary in 1947 by the eponymous John Clancy. He, and later his sons, oversaw the business for many decades, until 2013 when several executive directors were brought in to run operations on the family’s behalf. Since then, the company has considerably expanded its footprint around Ireland.
“Over the last 10 years, there’s been significant growth, development and transformation of the company,” said Mr Chambers. “At the end of 2013, we documented the five core values of the business, to drive the culture and direction of Clancy.”
These core values include safety, quality and teamwork. In 2022, a sixth was added: sustainability. “We had been
working sustainably before that, but we thought it was important to fully document it as part of the overall core values,” Mr Chambers explained. “So, we developed a sustainability strategy, and launched it in November 2022. Since then, we have achieved a lot and have ambitious targets for 2030.”
With a turnover of €92 million in 2022, the company has a stated strategy to grow to €130 million by the end of 2025. It has 150 employees, primarily operating in management, supervision or on-site logistics.
People, planet & performance
Clancy’s sustainability strategy sets out to align with the with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This means taking in the full range of SDGs, rather than only the environmental side.
“We have approached three areas of sustainability: people, planet and performance,” Tom O’Malley, Associate Director: Construction, explained. “And from there,
we started putting together where we’re currently at. People, for example, are our main asset as a construction company.
So, we established a baseline in terms of good health, education and gender equality, then did the same for planet and performance. And then we sat down with the directors, and worked out where we want to be, and where focus on particular UN SDGs could bring us by 2030.”
The company also established a sustainability committee to monitor the goals and establish targets, which are sub-divided into energy, waste and supply chain management, and corporate governance.
Keeping an eye on these targets are the Clancy sustainability champions, located at each site. Their role is to measure areas like waste management and fuel usage and report back to Mr O’Malley. The company also received investment from Enterprise Ireland, an Irish state economic development agency, to fund the green energy and waste management improvements.
Every year, Clancy now produces a report to show the areas it is succeeding in, as well as the areas that need improvement.
“It is not just a greenwashed sustainability document that says we are doing great,” said Mr O’Malley. “Because we really want to know if we are we on the right road, and that we can achieve the goals we’ve set.
“Our 2023 report shows the number of EVs we have and the number of people we’re putting through education. It documents our areas of climate action in terms of kilogrammes of carbon that we’re putting into the atmosphere from our fleet and our work sites, and the equivalent carbon from the amount of electricity that we’re using. We are up to 92 per cent recycling at our Dublin site, while across the country 84 per cent of our waste is being recycled.”
The extra mile
It is clear that Clancy is a company willing to do what it takes to reduce waste and improve productivity. This includes embracing the innovative lean management Last Planner System, which originated from the Toyota manufacturing facilities in Japan.
The system promotes the creation of a predictable workflow in order to achieve reliable results.
“That’s gone very well for us,” Mr Chambers reflected. “It helps to coordinate and communicate between site teams, reduce the amount of waste and improve programme outcomes on projects. We’ve done a lot of lean management training over the last few years, and it’s
come to fruition. We now consider ourselves to be leaders in these innovative methods.”
Putting the principles into action, Clancy oversaw a fast-track project to build a hospital in Limerick in 14 weeks in 2020: and during the Covid pandemic, the company constructed a 554-bedroom student accommodation scheme in Cork.
“Despite all the stoppages, disruption and supply chain interruptions, we managed to deliver that project on schedule,” said Mr Chambers. “That was probably the only student accommodation built on time that year.”
Another significant initiative for the company’s sustainable credentials is
an investment in a battery pack to run site welfare and logistics, which will be charged and maintained using one generator, replacing the use of three on the pilot site.
“The three generators would have run two tower cranes and a large welfare setup,” Mr Chambers explained. “We have invested a significant amount of money – over €200,000 – in the battery. We predict it’s going to reduce our carbon by 340 tonnes across two years, a reduction of about 80 per cent.”
Building partnerships
Clancy works with mainly local, Irish suppliers and has developed a supplier code of conduct which aligns the company’s core values and expectations with that of its supply chain. In 2024, it began running inspections, especially with suppliers of kit and equipment, to ensure that these commitments are being upheld.
“We want the relationships to be sustainable, so we’re very strong on paying people on time, creating that partnership
approach with them and being fair and reasonable,” said Mr O’Malley. “We’re not aggressive or overly contractual with our suppliers, or indeed our clients; but keeping the supply chain close is really important to us.”
Clancy aims to grow profitably over the next decade, while maintaining its domestic position and brand integrity. This will mean continuing to develop its sustainable potential, too.
“It is key for us to show our people that they can contribute, develop their careers and make a difference,” Mr Chambers concluded. “It’s a small enough company that the efforts of employees on a single site makes an impact on our success. Engagement with staff shows them that they’re making a difference: not just to Clancy as a business, but to our goals –and therefore to the planet as well.” n
