10-12-2009
The overall winner from each category will be announced at a Gala event on the 4th of March 2010 and will be presented with an Award by the Patron of the awards, An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, TD.

13-03-2009

Fabricating a brighter future no simple task in the slump

Ger Hickey is also looking to the UK where he hopes the company can take a tiny slice of a huge market. He has invested in a new website and brochures to help win new customers.

By Thomas Molloy

Thursday March 12 2009

Ger Hickey has known good times and bad times. He began his career in 1979, sweeping a factory floor for just 29 pence an hour. Today, he owns and manages a thriving metal fabrication company in Co.Waterford. It employs 35 people and has a turnover of millions.The recession is never far from his mind as the 46-year-old businessman watches friends, family and customers in the construction industry take a hammering. "I see a lot of suffering, people laid off," Mr Hickey says as he looks out towards the Comeragh Mountains from the window of his gleaming headquarters in the village of Kilmacthomas. "My biggest thought every day is how do I keep my people employed?" In this climate his ambition is simple: "Survive. Be here at the end of the downturn." Things may be tough but there is little sign of resignation or surrender in Hickey Fabrication. The company`s owner burns with determination to prosper in the downturn. Perhaps that`s because he has beaten worse things than the current recession.

 Today, the factory owner is making changes to his business model, but the changes are tweaks rather than a radical overhaul. He has imposed an overtime ban but, unlike many rivals, he`s still adding workers rather than shedding them. He says he took on two extra people at his factory last week and is taking on a salesman next week. Hickey Fabrication built up a Ђ4.5m business through word-of-mouth recommendations. It is the first time it has employed anybody to sell its goods. Hickey Fabrication has broken with tradition because of plans to expand beyond its Munster base to sell its tailor-made stainless steel staircases, balconies, vats and other products. "We can be very competitive in Dublin," says Mr Hickey firmly. He is also looking to the UK where he hopes the company can take a tiny slice of a huge market. The company has invested in a new website and new brochures to help win new customers. Hickey Fabrications is also cutting costs, Mr Hickey says. "The recession is after sharpening us all. If we price a job we go back to our suppliers to get reductions." The company is also asking five or six companies for quotes these days rather than one or two, and is surprised at how large the variations can be. He recently changed his phone provider to O2 for company mobiles and Imagine for the company`s landlines. The company now buys its electricity from Dublin-based Atricity which offers to undercharge the ESB by 10pc. Mr Hickey lays great emphasis on customer service, saying good customer care is what sets his company apart. Wondering whether his employees would agree, he whimsically stops a worker in the corridor and quizzes him about the company`s top priority. The colleague is waved away good-naturedly when he begins to expound on the merits of customer service. Point made.

Customers

"Every customer I have thinks he`s our only customer," smiles Mr Hickey. "If you don`t look after the fussy customer you can get into trouble. An unhappy customer could nail you by bad-mouthing if you don`t watch it." It is this attention to service that has helped the company to expand since Mr Hickey gave up a job as a foreman eight years ago to work for himself. Then, buoyed by a Ђ10,000 loan from Permanent TSB and Ђ3,000 in savings, he gave himself six months to make a go of the company. His first job, cleaning a vat of acid, was "very demeaning" for a former foreman, he remembers. The company remains a family affair. Mr Hickey`s wife Helen looks after the accounts and acts as his sounding board for business ideas. "If there is a risk, she`ll pull me back from the brink," he says fondly. She might be more cautious than her husband but she gave him "100pc backing" when, with a mortgage and three children, he decided to leave his job. His daughter was sweeping the floor while I was touring the company`s 15,000 sq ft manufacturing space. Mucking in seems to be the family ethos. Like his daughter, Mr Hickey is not afraid of physical work. On Friday afternoon, as many company managers were preparing to relax for the weekend, he was getting ready to join a crew of eight to dismantle and clean stainless-steel vats in a Waterford factory. He likes working on Saturdays because it gives him the chance to reconnect with his employees and his customers. It probably also gives him a chance to calculate how much more he is earning than the 29 pence an hour he earned 30 years ago.

- Thomas Molloy

 

06-03-2009
Hickey Fabrication Services was a finalist in the manufacturing sector in the SFA National Small Business Awards 2009 . The awards took place in the mansion house, Dublin and presentations were be conducted by Mr. Brian Cowen – An Taoiseach. This is the second time we have been a finalist

15-12-2008

Hickey Fabrication Sewrvices awarded business of the year 2008 from Waterford Enterprise Board.

15-12-2008
HFS has been short-listed as a finalist in the Small Firms Business Awards 2009- SFA National Business awards supplement will be published in the Irish Independent on Wednesday the 4th of March. The presentation of awards, by the patron of the awards, An Taoiseach, Brain Cowen will take place on Thursday 5th March 2009.

08-12-2008

HFS Finalist in the Ulster Bank Business Acheivers Awards 2008

07-03-2008
Finalist in the Manufacturing Award Category, in the SFA National Small Business Awards. Helen and Ger pictured here at the presentation of the awards with Sharon Ni Bheolain at the Mansion House, Dublin.

25-07-2007
HFS move into their new premises located at Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford, Ireland.

25-07-2007
HFS was also featured on a couple of Radio Business Programmes; Paul Nolan on WLR FM and Newstalk 106 FM hosted by Damien Kierberd.

25-07-2007
Waterford Enterprise Board - Business of the Year Award.

25-07-2007
Overall Winner in the Manufacturing Sector of the Waterford Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Award.