AT THE HEART OF CHANGE

Paul Brown, CEO at Sisk, talks about embracing change and evolving to meet clients’ changing needs

How is business at Sisk?
We have had a record year in FY 2023, with a turnover of nearly €2.5 billion. Our Data Centres & Life Sciences division has doubled their turnover in what has been an outstanding year. Our services businesses have really grown, we have invested and produced excellent results to support M&E on our data centres projects. Our aim is to be as resilient as possible.

Who set up John Sisk & Son? What services does the company provide?
Sisk was established by John Sisk in 1859 and is an innovative, international construction and engineering business with a long-term vision. Sisk employs approx 2,400 people and is Ireland’s leading provider of construction services with extensive operations across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe. We’ve got the track record, scale and capacity to successfully undertake large, complex multidisciplinary programmes. Sisk is recognised by global clients as a world leader in safe delivery.

We deliver projects and programmes in key sectors such as data and technology, pharmaceutical and life sciences, infrastructure, transportation, healthcare, commercial, residential, retail, industrial, leisure, education and energy. Sisk offers a lifecycle approach to construction, from planning and offsite construction through to delivering and fitting out a project safely and sustainably with technology as a key enabler. We also work with clients to help manage and maintain buildings efficiently throughout their lifespan.

Is it difficult to find staff?
At Sisk, we are constantly reviewing how we find the right people to join our business. Technology and the race to Net Zero have both changed the dynamic of the construction industry. Our vision at Sisk is to be at the heart of that change. Attracting talent is key to our industry. At Sisk, part of our strategy is putting a bigger emphasis on attracting more diverse talent into the sector. Training and development of our people has been a long-standing trait of Sisk culture throughout our history and is something we are very proud of. Our industry is evolving at an incredibly fast pace and so too are the training and development needs of our people – new roles, new skillsets and new ways of working are creating a demand for fresh thinking around how we manage our training and development going forward, so that our people can continue to thrive in their careers.

Our 2023 graduate cohort is our largest, most diverse intake to date (48 graduates, 19% international hires and 25% female). We are trying to make careers in construction as attractive as possible. Collectively, the industry doesn’t attract enough females and people from diverse backgrounds. We are trying to unlock those pools of talent and we have invested a lot in our equality, diversity and inclusion programme.

What are some of the challenges facing the company?
We continue to see the impact of rising interest rates and bad debt risk. We need to continue to leverage our strong financial position and be extra diligent in how we engage and work with both our clients and our supply chain. Our clients want more from their trusted construction partners. They need honest advisors and swift problem-solvers who will adapt and refine projects as they progress. We are being stretched to deliver more complex projects, greener and faster than ever before.

How much of an effect are material prices and delays having on the business?
The majority of price volatility and availability issues that we saw during the 2021-2023 period have now abated. That being said, this period did result in elevated price levels for many construction commodities that are highly unlikely to ever return to pre Covid-era levels. We will remain very vigilant around materials market pricing and availability – if we consider the events of the past few years, supply chain disruption seemed to begin with Brexit, then we had the systemic upheaval of the Covid-era, followed by the war in Ukraine and the subsequent European energy crisis. Each of these events have had a significant impact on our materials supply chains and it is reasonable to expect that we will see further supply chain disruptions in some form or other in the coming years.

How have the services you provide changed over the years as the industry evolves?
Over the past six years we have made substantial acquisitions to ensure our clients have access to tailored solutions that support their sustainability goals. This includes our off-site manufacturing business, Vision Built, our facilities management business, Sensori FM and Fuse Rail, our specialist electrical company created to service the electrification and plant requirements within the UK rail industry.

Where do you think the most significant growth will occur for the business in the next few years?
Data centres, life sciences and technology. Over the past two years under Chief Operating Officer Donal McCarthy, we have expanded our business and followed our key accounts into the UK and Europe, as well as developing new client relationships. As a result, we doubled our turnover in Data Life Sciences & Tech in 2023. Quality of earnings is of crucial importance and our focus is not on chasing revenue for revenue’s sake.
We want to work with the right clients in the right areas. As part of the wider Sisk strategy, our ambition is to grow the Data, Life Sciences and Technology business unit sustainably, without compromising the quality of our overall delivery to meet the demands of our clients.

What projects are you currently working on?
Glass Bottle, Dublin
Phase One at Glass Bottle is currently under construction by Sisk, with the creation of 900 new homes in the heart of Dublin city. The project includes the construction of 63,160 sq m of mixed residential and commercial development, along with best-in-class public amenities. The initiative will deliver a mixed tenure neighbourhood, as along with the privately owned and build to rent element, one quarter of all units delivered will be allocated to social and affordable homes.

O’Devaney Gardens
Sisk is delighted to be on site delivering Phase 1 of this important housing project that will deliver 368 apartments across five blocks, 11 houses and a creche, as well as four retail units and landscaping and roads. Extensive pre-planning has been completed to maximise the use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) which will help reduce the impact on the local environment. For example, the building structure will primarily consist of precast walls, slabs and stairs. This will reduce the volume of concrete to be poured on site by approximately 70% and reduce the workforce numbers on site by 60%. This means less personnel on site, less concrete pours and less truck movements.

The apartment blocks will be constructed in a controlled, consecutive sequence. This will ensure a continuous but relatively limited number of people on site and the bathrooms will all be constructed off site and delivered as a completed unit where it can be lifted into position on site. This will reduce the volume of works required on site.

Limerick/Foynes Railway
Sisk is completing the first phase of works to reinstate the Limerick to Foynes rail line for freight services. The project for phase 1 of the works has been funded by the Department of Transport and will focus on track and track bed works, vegetation clearance, fencing and works at bridges, level crossings and public road crossings. The 42km railway line between Limerick and Foynes originally opened in 1858, but closed to passenger traffic in 1963.

Freight services continued until 2001. The line’s reinstatement is a key element of Iarnród Éireann’s Rail Freight 2040 Strategy to dramatically increase the levels of freight on Ireland’s rail network.

Killaloe Bypass, Shannon Bridge Crossing and R494 Improvement Scheme
This project will provide a western bypass around Killaloe, a new bridge crossing of the River Shannon and an upgrade of the existing R494 regional road from Ballina to Birdhill.

The entire scheme is over 6km in length and will cross the River Shannon approximately 1km downstream of the existing Killaloe Bridge. The project team, led by Clare County Council and consisting of Tipperary County Council, the Department of Transport and scheme consultants, RPS Consulting Engineers, have been progressing the delivery of this significant piece of infrastructure for the mid-west region over the past number of years.

One Opera Square, Limerick
Sisk is proud to be part of the biggest single commercial property programme investment in Limerick and largest ever outside of Dublin. This project is being developed by Limerick Twenty Thirty DAC (LTT), a special purpose vehicle established by Limerick City and County Council in 2016 to stimulate economic and social development by building out and promoting strategic disused sites in Limerick. One Opera Square has reached two recent significant milestones – the midway point of the project and work commencing on the One Opera Square building.

Community Nursing Units (CNU’s)
Sisk is delivering seven nursing units via PPP (Public Private Partnership) throughout Ireland as part of the HSE’s CNU programme. The CNU PPP Project will deliver residential care facilities comprising both short and long-stay beds at facilities across the country. To maximise the use of MMC techniques, the building superstructures are being manufactured off-site using pre-cast concrete. When complete, all buildings will be A2 Building Energy Rating (BER) minimum.

The programme will deliver 530 nursing-home beds to the HSE by the end of 2024 at the following locations:
• Thomastown – 95 beds
• Ardee – 50 beds
• Athlone – 50 beds
• Clonmel – 50 beds
• Killarney – 130 beds
• Middleton – 50 beds
• St Finbarr’s – 105 beds

How do you maintain a competitive edge?
The business has changed significantly over the past number of years in terms of our offering. We have shifted our focus further afield on working smarter, not harder, by utilising MMC and investing in digital transformation. We have invested heavily in research & design and now have both an in-house Innovation & Design team along with a decarbonisation offering for clients. We have many initiatives that are reducing construction carbon. We are now actively working with our clients to assess embedded carbon and using this information to challenge and inform design strategies.

In Ireland, Sisk represents a leading voice in the market on MMC and we’re also well represented across the country’s prominent industry forums and Government initiatives – but we still have a long way to go. In the Data Centre, Life Sciences & Tech sectors, Sisk is considered among the top performing and industry-leading advocates for innovation.

We are working with clients who we know are continuing to push the boundaries and in doing so, are providing significant learning opportunity for our business.

We are also engaging in a number of frameworks in the retrofit space. Our team is now looking at the road ahead and forecasting responsibly in a way that we can deliver.

How important is sustainability to the company?
As Ireland’s largest contractor, we take our responsibilities very seriously. This was at the forefront of our business agenda in 2021 when we launched our 2030 sustainability roadmap and increased our engagement with all stakeholders. Sisk is committed to being carbon neutral by 2030 and being a leader to become part of the solution for a better, healthier and more equitable future. Our ambition is to be the exemplar Net Zero partner to our clients and supply chain and strive for zero carbon emissions in all our activities. To achieve this, we need to expand our current offering by leveraging our existing specialists to develop new, industry-leading services, along with continuing to push the boundaries on our projects in best practice carbon management.

Sustainability is at the heart of our business strategy and it informs everything we do to develop and expand the services that we offer. There have been some notable milestones including switching to fossil-free HVO fuel across all of our Irish construction sites. Earlier this year, Sisk was delighted to be one of the 15 founding members of the Irish Supply Chain Sustainability School, having been a member of the UK School for the past seven years.

The School is now set to provide free industry-supported training, knowledge sharing and support for best practices in sustainability within the Irish built environment. Construction is a sector that needs to play its part in the climate emergency by fundamentally changing how we go about our business.

What do you attribute the company’s success to?
Our people. People and culture is one of our five main strategic priorities. We need to make Sisk a great place to work for everyone. Peoples’ motivations have changed over recent years, they want more out of their personal and professional lives. We are trying to build a no limits inclusive career with self-fulfilment at the heart of this.

Our ambition is to create a leading and inclusive workplace that supports our people to achieve purposeful work. To enjoy working with great people, have time for life and be their very best. We want the experience we offer to attract and retain the best people, who will continue to be the key differentiator in our business.

How important is customer service at Sisk?
Sisk has excellent relationships with clients and over 70% of our work in Ireland is repeat business. We are also committed to taking a partnership approach with our supply chain and subcontractors. This was demonstrable at our 2023 Supply Chain Awards in Dublin where we had over 900 of our supply chain partners in attendance to celebrate our collaborative efforts.

What are your ambitions going forward?
Our ambition is to propel Sisk to a new era of performance through the integration of cutting-edge technologies, increasing digital competencies and embed data-driven decision makings – acting as a key enabler to our other strategic priorities. Although we recognise that our business has improved our digital capability significantly over the last few years, we are now ready to make another step change in the coming 3-5 years. Our plan focuses on a combination of early quick wins, with longer term, more complex transformational projects. Both will be essential to engaging and winning the hearts and minds of our people to come with us on this journey.

Our vision to be at the heart of change leads to our immediate mission to embrace innovation and new ways of working. For Sisk, Building Excellence means evolving our service offering to be more diverse, agile and resilient. It means changing how we build to be more efficient with limited resources and it means rethinking how our people go to work every day and the sustainable, inclusive culture that we create. And of course, it also means doing the basics right – consistently and diligently throughout our business.

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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine

Email: michael@irishconstruction.com      WWW.MCDMEDIA.IE