Well insulated for future success

Sometimes the biggest success stories begin with the simplest question.

Standing on a building site in Donegal in 2006, Cavan entrepreneur Jim Farrell spotted a fellow contractor injecting insulation beads into the walls of a newly-built home.

“I looked across and said, ‘What’s he at?’” Jim recalls with a smile. “Two months later I had my own truck, the kit, and away we went. That’s where it started.”

Today, Breffni Insulation employs more than 100 people, including subcontractors. The team delivers projects across the North East and beyond, and has evolved into a fully integrated one-stop-shop for sustainable energy solutions serving homeowners, businesses, schools, colleges, local authorities and major Government retrofit programmes.

Along the way the company has survived recession, economic uncertainty and a global pandemic. Yet through every challenge, one philosophy remained unchanged.

“You have to keep moving forward,” Jim says. “Keep pushing on.”

Humble beginnings

Breffni Insulation’s first base bore little resemblance to the thriving business headquarters that stand today.

The company started life in a small shed behind Jim’s family home in Ballyjamesduff- affectionately remembered as “the chicken coop”.

“Like Jeff Bezos,” Jim laughs. “He started in a basement. I started in a shed behind the house.”

Working from that tiny space, Jim, together with brother-in-law Mickey McDonald, brother Gary Farrell and Ceilia Farrell in the office, laid the foundations for a company built on hard work and determination.

“You’d be working all day and pricing jobs all night,” Jim remembers.

Twenty years later, the work days are no shorter. But the scale of responsibility and ambition has grown.

Future focused

As demand increased, the local business relocated to a yard at Killyfassey, first rented and later bought from Ian Jameson.

The company’s growing footprint later saw it acquire the former Ulster Bank building in Kilnaleck, but it’s the site near Mountnugent, which is now the focus of Breffni Insulation’s future plans.

With continued growth, the long-term vision is to consolidate operations and develop a purpose-built headquarters capable of supporting the next chapter of expansion.

One-stop-shop

The company became a registered SEAI contractor before reaching another landmark in early 2025 when it achieved official SEAI One Stop Shop status. Today, Breffni Insulation manages every stage of the retrofit journey - from surveys, design and grant applications to project management and installation - with expertise spanning from private homes to commercial premises, schools, colleges, local authority housing and major Government initiatives, including the SEAI Warmer Homes Scheme, Better Energy Homes, Better Energy Communities, the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme, the Traditional Homes Pilot and Heat Loss Indicator programmes.

Accredited by both the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), they proudly deliver energy-efficient solutions while helping customers reduce costs, improve comfort and lower carbon emissions.

Talking business

Jim is the first to insist that Breffni Insulation’s success isn’t down to the efforts of one individual. Instead, he credits the people around him for helping the business grow through the years.

Among them is Managing Director Steven Burns, who joined in 2019 after having already had a successful career in architecture, construction and sustainable building technologies.

Jim leaves little doubt about the impact Steven has made in a relatively short period, playing a pivotal role transforming Breffni Insulation into a fully integrated energy solutions company capable of delivering complex retrofit projects from start to finish.

“We’ve moved to a place now where we have the in-house knowledge, experience and expertise to advise clients, design solutions, manage projects and deliver them to the highest standards,” Steven explains.

Built on relationships

Last weekend Breffni Insulation celebrated its anniversary by hosting a special appreciation event at Fay Park in Ballyjamesduff for staff, past and present, alongside contractors, suppliers and long-standing business partners.

For Jim, those relationships remain the company’s greatest asset.

“The people we’ve built relationships with, worked well with and shown respect to - they’re the businesses we’re still working with.”

He also pays tribute to those who helped in the earliest days, particularly the late Tommy Brady and Caroline and Noel Brady of Airpacks, now Kore Insulation.

“They gave me a lot of knowledge. I was buying materials from them, but they shared their experience too. That made a huge difference.”

Those partnerships continue today, and as Breffni Insulation expanded, so too has its commitment to developing its workforce.

Investing in people

Many employees who joined as installers have progressed into key project management and leadership positions.

The company also works closely with the local Education and Training Board (ETB) to help develop training pathways and qualifications for Ireland’s rapidly growing retrofit sector, creating opportunities for future generations.

“We’ve always tried to hire locally where we can,” Steven says.

“The majority of our workforce comes from within 10 or 20 miles of here. We want people to see they can build a career and grow with the company.”

Next chapter

For many businesses, reaching a 20-years is a milestone few attain. But for Breffni Insulation, it feels more like the beginning of the next phase.

“We’ve never been in a place where we said, ‘We’re happy enough’” states Jim. “We’ve always kept moving, always branching out.”

That mindset continues to define the company’s ambitions.

“We’re not looking at today,” Steven says. “We’re already looking five years down the road and beyond.”