PROFILE
We call it 360 scheduling. It’s a unique package. It takes months of work off the architects. We are a trusted partner, not just a supplier” Chris Kilpatrick
Chris also says that the firm’s work with the hotel sector and its provision and maintenance of automatics and access solutions helped the firm thrive during this difficult time.
PEAK PERFORMANCE Exponential growth has enabled KCC Group to position itself in a unique position in the Irish architectural ironmongery market. Nicky Roger talks to Chris Kilpatrick about its success.
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CC Group’s recent accolades are almost an embarrassment of riches. The Irish firm was awarded the Business All Stars Award of Excellence from the All-Ireland Business Foundation earlier this year – a national accreditation organisation charged with promoting enterprise growth and bestin-class practices for Irish companies. The company was also named as one of Ireland’s Platinum Best Managed Companies in the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Award programme in 2020 for the seventh consecutive year – the highest level possible. It picked up the Public Sector Award for excellence in architectural products and services for the past two years in a row; and was shortlisted for sub-contractor of the year at the Irish Construction Industry Awards 24
2020 for its work on Project Fitzwilliam (see opposite page). And when we met for this interview, Chris Kilpatrick, the company’s managing director, had just been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the All-Ireland Business Foundation. However, this clutch of gongs is nothing new for KCC. These awards will sit alongside the firm’s European Business Award for Innovation which it picked up in 2016. Chris says the ‘innovation’ was the fact that it managed to expand its business during one of the worst recessions the construction industry had ever experienced. “We opened up branches in Qatar and London,” says Chris. “While others were struggling, we went knocking on doors.”
Above: Chris Kilpatrick, MD Right: A fully worked up prototype of the windows for ESB HQ in Fitzwilliam Street
Growth chart KCC Architectural, as it was previously known, has its origins in the 1998 management buy-out of the Ingersoll Rand Group’s Irish operation. Primarily a specifier and supplier of ironmongery and access control the firm acquired Skelly Doors in 2005, expanded further with the takeover of MMF Architectural in Mullingar in 2008 and eight years later partnered with MHB and other international brands to supply its high end range of facade, window, door and internal steel glazing systems. These are currently being used on the Fitzwilliam Project (see opposite). The most recent acquisition was Elite Doors in Northern Ireland. “We have four main business units: hardware; automatics and access control; facades, partitions and door; and maintenance and inspections,” explains Chris. “These are the four pillars that underpin our strategy.” The company rebranded in 2020 from KCC Architectural to KCC Group to better reflect its ability to be a total solutions provider. “We call it 360 scheduling,” explains Chris. “It’s a unique package from KCC. We go to an architect and ask them to give us their drawings and then we can specify the whole project including issues around warranty and testing. It takes months of work off the architects; we go from initial design to specification and then installation and
ARCHITECTURAL IRONMONGERY JOURNAL
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