SET FOR GROWTH
John Sheridan, Managing Director at Sika Ireland, talks to Irish Construction Industry Magazine about evolving with a changing industry and plans for 2025
How was business in 2024?
We had our highest turnover in 2024, so a really excellent year. That success is down to the strength of everyone at Sika Ireland. We’re very lucky to have some of the best people in the industry working with us. We’re attracting new talent all the time; we’re in a great position to offer an attractive suite of products to potential recruits. We’re well placed to grow into the future.
How long have Sika products been available in Ireland?
Sika products came to Ireland back in the 1920s with Siemens when they built the Ardnacrusha project. They have been available to various distributors in Ireland since then. In 1995, Sika Ireland Limited was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sika AG and became the distributors of all Sika products in Ireland. We’ve grown from two people back in 1995 to 56 people today.
How has the company weathered the various crises over the years?
Very well. Sika is a company with a range of different product offerings for all types of construction. We’re involved in new builds, but we’re also involved in refurbishment projects. We have a large range of products that can prolong the life of buildings. There was certainly a big drop-off in new builds during the recession, but quite a lot of work continued in the areas of refurbishment and infrastructure.
How have your products evolved as the industry has changed?
As the industry has evolved, so have we. In the beginning, Sika was predominantly known for basement and underground waterproofing. Over the years we have evolved to supply concrete admixtures, concrete repair mortars, roofing systems and overground waterproofing systems. We’re currently in the middle of an evolution around sustainability, which is key to the future of construction.
A lot of our products are undergoing reformulation to make them more sustainable, but we’re also launching new and innovative products to help make the industry more sustainable. They include low carbon admixtures for the production of concrete and also specialist repair mortars which will extend the life of existing buildings. I think the idea of knocking buildings down and replacing them is not the way forward. The repurposing of existing building stock is important; we have several products that can help in that regard.
What other sustainability initiatives have you implemented?
We opened our new concrete admixture plant in 2024, which means we are now manufacturing our own sustainable admixtures in Ireland. In terms of freight and CO2, that amounts to quite a significant saving. We also have our own solar array which we installed last year. That provides about 60% of the energy that we use. We are planning on installing a rainwater harvesting system this year, which will provide us with 50% of all our water needs from the roof of our own building. We continue to be more sustainable ourselves, as well as bringing more sustainable products to the industry.
What are some of the notable projects Sika Ireland has been involved in?
We’ve been involved in several noteworthy projects, including the regeneration of Dublin Docklands. We completed a number of the basements and underground carparks along the quays at the IFSC and all the way down to The Point. Our expertise in waterproofing came to the fore with this project; we were working in an area with a very high water table adjacent to The Liffey.
That was an important breakthrough project and helped us grow during the first boom. Other projects we’ve worked on include data centres, pharmaceutical and tech. Antistatic flooring is another area we’re active in and a growth area for us, particularly in factories where they have robots or automation.
How does Sika Ireland support its local community?
We’ve always made great efforts to be involved with the local community. We’re one of the biggest employers in Ballymun. We’re very much involved with a project called Better Ballymun, a community-led development organisation that’s all about giving young people a voice. A lot of our staff will give up a few hours during the year to help with clean-ups around the area and collaborate with young people in schools to help improve the community.
How important is health and safety at Sika Ireland?
It’s one of the most important aspects of the business. In August 2024, we passed five years without a lost time accident, which was quite an achievement for a busy warehouse and manufacturer. That’s a record we’re very keen to protect going forward. Some of the programmes that we’ve rolled out in the last few years are about extending safety, one of which is ‘Safety Beyond the Gate’.
In our industry, people know that when they come onto our site they have to abide by our safety protocols, but we’re also promoting safety for our staff outside our gates. Our ‘Drive to Arrive’ programme promotes safe driving and we recently ran a first aid course for all staff. Safety is part of everything we do and we strive to extend safety beyond the gate.
Have you implemented any initiatives around diversity in the workplace?
We have and it’s an area that we’re constantly trying to improve. Just recently, we recruited two females into frontline sales. It’s incumbent on us to put in place the supports to allow more women take up those kind of roles. Ireland is changing and we’re constantly evolving to meet those changes. Currently, we have 10 different nationalities working with us in Ireland and that is only set to grow.
What are the ambitions for 2025?
We intend to continue to grow and develop and launch new products this year and beyond. Over the next couple of years, residential will be a huge area of growth and we have plans to increase our offering into that sector to meet demand. Another area of growth for us is tile adhesives. We aim to extend our cementitious floor levelling products and adhesive products into the residential sector at the end of quarter one and build on that throughout the rest of the year. At Sika Ireland, we’re very optimistic about the future.
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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine
Email: michael@irishconstruction.com WWW.MCDMEDIA.IE