€5m Christmas Eve wish no pipe dream for plumbing suppliers South Coast Sales

A 40,000 square foot new building and € 5 million investment was an unexpected 2020 Christmas surprise delivered to the other side of the world for Derry Casey of Cork construction and agricultural supply company South Coast Sales.

Six months ago, Mr Casey, sales manager at the family-run SCS, met in Adelaide, Australia, with one of their key material suppliers, Philmac, a pipe and plastic fitting company.

Boardroom in SCS ‘new premises on Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Cork.

On Christmas Eve, he received a link to the arrival of this 40,000 square foot industrial facility in the Doughlcoyne Industrial Estate on the open market in Cork, just across from SCS’s former trading base here on Wilton’s Sarsfields Road.

The updated 40,000-square-foot new building is the third of the 31-year-old SCS in the same location as the Doughcloyne Industrial Estate.The updated 40,000-square-foot new building is the third of the 31-year-old SCS in the same location as the Doughcloyne Industrial Estate.

“I saw it every day from my own office across the street and said it was the only place I wanted,” he says, having just made the jump to a new, larger unit on Jan. -Year-old to meet growth of the old company founded by his father Frank.

Main office Main office

Significant modernization work to a seldom seen standard for such units in Cork, including a company-level boardroom / training room, was swiftly completed. SCS moved in April from a 20,000 m² unit to its new, converted 40,000 m² unit, vacated by O’Connell Transport, sold by Savills and acquired for SCS by Sean Healy of Cushman & Wakefield. It is their third unit at the Wilton site since 1990 and the company now has 42 employees.

Stack and stack: New South Coast Sales premises, Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Cork.Stack and stack: New South Coast Sales premises, Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Cork.

According to Mr Casey, directly through the Covid-19 lockdowns, SCS was trading as a significant sector business, with employees being split into two teams, each working three 12-hour shifts per week, a change from a five to a six -Days-week meant.

He added that business in agricultural pipe sales was very strong last year as workers / students who would normally have worked in hospitality and other sectors seasonally returned to family farms where investments were made in agricultural infrastructure.

SCS ‘exclusive mainstay products include Australian pipe and plumbing brand Philmac and Farho electric heaters.

But if their business is a forerunner in sectoral activity, Mr. Casey stated that “the significant recovery we expected after the site reopened a few weeks ago had not occurred”.

Meanwhile, the existing 20,000 square foot building was sold by South Coast Sales via Declan Hickey of Casey & Kingston in a rapid series of music chairs to Carey Tools wharf through September.

The demolition of the Sextant Bar in Cork next to Carey Tool Hire in August 2020 to make way for a new development by the JCD Group.The demolition of the Sextant Bar in Cork next to Carey Tool Hire in August 2020 to make way for a new development by the JCD Group.

Although they plan to move to a location on the Kinsale Road roundabout that they received from the JCD Group under their Albert Quay sales agreement, that tool and rental company is now investing in Doughcloyne instead.

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