Breffni Air ‘honoured’ by global market recognition

TARGET €5M home investment planned

Ventilation and engineering specialist Breffni Air Ireland has been shortlisted as one of 17 ‘major market players’ in an independent industry research report that predicts further significant growth in the global air duct manufacturing sector in the coming years.

Breffni Air was recognised among, in some cases, significantly larger peers like Schneider Electric and Siemans AG, for implementing key business strategies such as strategic expansion, new product launches, alliances, and joint ventures for enhancing overall market penetration.

The acknowledgement comes as the local firm is preparing to reinvest in the region of €5 million at its Cavan Town headquarters on a “new project” which, once it comes to fruition, has the potential of creating more even more jobs in the local community.

Recognition

“There’s been a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes,” explains Breffni Air MD, Yvonne Sheanon, wife of Paddy Sheanon who founded the local company over 20 years ago.

The firm's mention in the recently published Allied Market Research report is a significant boost, with the global air duct industry, estimated to be worth $13.9 billion in 2021, set to reach close to $23 billion in trade by 2031.

With a strong trading foothold in Ireland, Europe and the UK, Breffni Air has in recent times focused their expansion through a growing list of clientele among Fortune 500 companies across continental Europe and by doing so, is on course to make further advancements in years to come.

“We’re working well, keeping the head down,” adds Yvonne of the local business, which spent upwards of €4 million on a new manufacturing HQ at the IDA Business Park on the outskirts of Cavan Town at Killygarry just before the pandemic hit.

Soon after the business helped US-based Ultra Clean Holdings Inc establish an Advanced Technology Cleaning Centre (ATCC) next door, with the prospect of creating close to 100 jobs. “Are we proud? Of course we are. That acknowledgement for us is unbelievable,” Yvonne says of Breffni Air’s inclusion in the market report.

Growth

Hugo Fitzsimons, engineering design manager at Breffni Air, explains: “[Our] initial business was ventilation, but with any industry it has its peaks and troughs. So, to level out the curve, we began looking into other industries and how we could apply our expertise to help those.”

Hugo has been a long-standing and valued member of the Breffni Air team since 1999, and he expressed astonishment at the trajectory of growth the company has since taken.

“In my first job there was one PC in the entire office, no email, just a fax machine and a whole suite of telephone directories, not just for Ireland and the UK, but the [United] States as well.”

Contracts

Breffni Air has been awarded numerous contracts to date, in both the supply and installation of components, including naming at the AstraZeneca global headquarters in Cambridge, best known for manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the Meta (formerly Facebook) data centre in Clonee.

It is also currently active in two major contracts at the Intel Blue Jay flagship semi-conductor component facility in Leixlip, and at Tesla’s impressive Gigafactory Berlin manufacturing plant.

“[These contracts] come with progression, and as you grow bigger, the larger players in the market look up and say to themselves ‘we need someone of substance, with integrity, and the required engineering expertise’ to help make this happen.”

Expansion

The next step?

With America trying to divest its reliance on Chinese manufacturing going forward, Breffni Air hopes to earn part of that potentially lucrative market share too.

Admittedly there was always going to be a “cap” on how much business Breffni Air could generate simply from plying its trade within the 32 counties, and when Brexit caused the UK to essentially “close down overnight”, the company looked further afield.

“Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland and Milan, there’s Germany as well,” says Hugo, who does not believe the upheaval in the tech industry globally at present will overly impact the need for infrastructural investment in the long-run.

“It’s self-perpetuating in the sense that as we, as individuals, demand more from our iPhone or laptop to give us more availability of data, more broadband, more information, there will be as need for this investment.”

Future investment

To meet demand Breffni Air is currently working on a “new project”, thus reinvesting €5 million into it’s existing premises in Cavan Town with the potential again to create new employment for the local area.

“You must keep moving and keep working hard to make progress,” states Yvonne, who reiterates that the fast expansion growth of their business is in no small part due to the “loyalty, support and dedication” of their hard-working members of staff at home in Ireland and abroad, and its “highly experienced” management team.