Cavan company walking on air

It takes a determined business mind and keen entrepreneurial spirit to judge which way the wind is blowing and then to capitalise on any opportunities that come in the breeze.

Facing into a potentially transformative few years, Cavan ventilation and engineering specialist Breffni Air has spent upwards of €4 million on a new manufacturing base at the IDA Business Park on the outskirts of Cavan Town at Killygarry.

Barely drawing breath, the company and its no-nonsense managing director Paddy Sheanon doubled down on the Killygarry development by almost immediately beginning work on a second equally large production facility on the site next door.

Paddy sits in the corner of a wide well-lit room, detailed schematics litter the table. In the background and down on the main plant floor, viewed through a narrow floor-to-ceiling height window, filters the sound of mechanical buzzing, industrial clanking and shouts of coordinated endeavour.

Paddy’s arms are folded, his brow furrowed. He has turned down the chance to do interviews elsewhere before, and even now pensively sizes-up each question up before answering.

The Breffni Air success story, which remains relatively untold to date, is impressive.

When pushed on valuing the business as it now stands, Paddy drums his fingers rhythmically. “I don’t know,” is his initial reply.

Built from the ground up over 20 years, and now with a significant trading foothold across Ireland, the UK and Europe, at further gentle pestering, he reluctantly gives in.

Around €30 million is the figure quoted.

“Maybe more”. A rare smile breaks across his face.

Incredibly Paddy expects the business to bring in at least that each year for the next three years.

It’s a far cry from when, having served an apprenticeship under Michael Gaffney at Sheelin Air, Paddy one day turned to his parents, John and Kathleen, and asked them to stand as surety for a €6,000 loan from Cavan Credit Union to enable him set out on his own.

“My father signed for it. That was a time when money was hard got!” he remembers gratefully.

John, a salt-of-the-earth farmer, toiling in the undulating drumlin landscapes around Denn, had full faith his son would make every cent count. Count it did!

The trajectory of Breffni Air since its foundation in 1999 has been nothing short of remarkable.

After just two years, Paddy and his crew out-grew their rented surrounds in Ballinagh, and moved to a site at Drumavaddy. At the time Paddy estimates spending €300,000 in making that happen - again a lot of money in pre-Celtic Tiger days. “The rest is history,” consigns Paddy.

There is however more to the story than where Paddy prematurely cuts off.

Riding out the worst of the recession, Breffni Air found itself keenly positioned to profit from the advent of a boom in the data and technology sector in Ireland.

After securing numerous sizeable contracts, in early 2016, Breffni Air drove forward another ambitious plan for expansion by relocating to a sprawling 29,000 sq ft premises in Kilnaleck village.

The move resulted in 20 additional jobs being created, taking the total workforce at the time to 135 people.

The move was defining for Breffni Air. Not long after, they secured a contract to work with a pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca’s global headquarters in Cambridge- currently in the headlines as frontrunner for manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine.

“That was a big one for us. From Drumavaddy to Kilnaleck, it was after the move they came, sized us up, and we were on the job within four weeks. It was a serious boost for the company at the time. It changed a lot of things,” recalls the boss.

Three years on, Paddy was back at the drawing board, with even grander plans in mind.

Sites six and seven at the IDA Cavan Business Park had lain vacant, empty and overgrown, since thy were first marked out for inward investment more than two decades ago.

Aside from ATA Tools Group Ltd, the only brief hope to fill the landbank came at the turn of the century, off the back of US tech company Teradyne Inc’s interest in moving to Cavan.

The IDA had plans of their own - to build two new advance technology factories.

Ultimately, Teradyne Inc deferred their investment indefinitely, and with it an estimated 760 jobs. It was a big blow to the town.

The decision came just days after permission to build on a 94-acre site at Drumbo was eventually granted after a lengthy planning delay.

Over time, the IDA’s appetite for development at the site appeared to wane also.

That such largescale investment can so easily become mired by the planning system, is something that rankles with Paddy.

In a rare show of emotion, he fumes: “It’s one of the things I hate most. The planning laws here, stopping jobs, it’s an absolute disgrace. People living 10 miles away can come in and stop a company creating hundreds of jobs. It doesn’t make sense. For the social, the economic benefit that could have come of it, the selfishness to block something like that is unreal.”

While the scars left by Teradyne’s change of heart still itch for the Cavan economy, Breffni Air’s investment offers a salve to soothe old wounds.

It was Paddy who approached the IDA first.

The conversation centred on a, still under-wraps, product Paddy and Breffni Air have developed for a blue-chip company based in America.

“It’s another expansion, another opportunity to push on,” he says of starting to build the second factory.

“[The IDA] see the future in it. But I can’t say much more yet,” he continues cagily. “There might be more for you to report. Give it another six months.”

Another wry smile.

Specialist ventilation and ducting is a very niche market, and Off-Site Modularisation (OSM), Paddy considers, is the future especially in a rapidly evolving post-Covid environment.

Building highly-technical components as Breffni Air does in Cavan, and then shipping them for and assembly and installation at their destination reduces on-site labour pressures, and costs too.

“I see a big future in OSM, a very big future. With Covid now, companies don’t want as many people on sites. So that’s where we’re pushing to in the next three years,” Paddy explains.

Those three years are, Paddy confidently predicts, going to be Breffni Air’s “biggest” yet.

“We’ve probably invested about €10m in the last three to four years. It’s like anything, you have to see it make a return to be confident in making your next investment. It’s about building the whole thing up. It’s a risk you have to take,” he reflects.

On the factory floor there are shipping containers marked for Finland and Sweden.

Other ongoing projects include a major datacentre in Clonee, a cheese production facility in Portlaoise, as well as a flagship semi-conductor component facility in Kildare.

Reputation, Paddy believes, is one of the company’s most valuable assets. Almost every company project Breffni Air works on is either for a Fortune 500 or blue-chip businesses with recognised international presence.

“It’s very good for Ireland. It’s going to be 4,000 construction workers on site,” he says of one specific project, which he doesn’t name directly, but is a $4 billion multi-year construction programme already widely reported in the press. “It’s great to see that investment coming to this country. Even from that, there’s the benefit reaching here in Cavan - working there, creating jobs here.”

With many young people questioning what employment paths to take, weighing up options in a year defined by flux and uncertainty, Paddy has this advice: “If you have something in your mind, and you really want to do it, it can be done. School is not everything. Education is. I didn’t even do my Leaving Cert. But that has nothing to do with it.

“If you have ambition, you can do anything. But you have to have drive to get what you want to get in life. You have to be prepared to take risks. You have to be willing to make things happen.”

Paddy’s wife Yvonne says her husband is perpetually focused on just that - making things happen.

The couple have two sons, Dwayne (19) and Cian (10), with the elder now taking a hands-on role working within the company.

“He loves it, it’s his passion,” says Yvonne of Paddy. “He loves working. He loves being in the middle of it all.”

She also lovingly states, that if Paddy has a singular flaw, it’s a critical failure to accept acknowledgement of his accomplishments.

“His achievements have been unbelievable,” coos Yvonne. “But he doesn’t see it that way. The jobs, what he’s been able to bring to Cavan, and the spin off that has had in the economy as well - in restaurants, hotels, you name it!”

Today, including sub-contractors also, Breffni Air provides a livelihood for up to 360 people.

There are 60 people alone now working at the Killygarry site, and Paddy is looking to employ around a dozen new apprentices in the not too distant future.

He is a firm believer that, in order to have a good company, you have to have a good staff.

“Workers, you have to appreciate them. Saying that, they have to appreciate and respect where you’re coming from too. It’s a business at the end of the day. You need loyal staff. Our staff have been very good to us, I have to say that.”

If there is a silver lining in the Covid cloud looming over the economy, Paddy believes it may be that the pandemic will help reverse the brain-drain that rural counties have suffered over the years.

Paddy is looking for junior engineers. In the past six to eight months there has been no shortage of hiring those with such a unique skill-set.

“[Covid] has a lot to do with it. I think there is a massive push back coming because of the whole pandemic - people coming home, looking to work closer to home. It’s good news for the likes of us hopefully, good news for local businesses. Young people, the future for them for the next three or four years is now so uncertain, so I think we’ll see them now looking for options nearby.”