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

Expanding agri- and building supplies firm joins Carey Tools in series of multi-million euro Cork site moves

Derry Casey, Director, outside South Coast Sales new premises, Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Cork.

A 40,000 sq ft new premises, and a €5 million investment was an unexpected Christmas 2020 surprise, delivered to the other side of the world, for Derry Casey of Cork building and agri supplies business South Coast Sales.

Six months ago, Mr Casey,  who is Sales Director with family-run SCS, was  in Adelaide, Australia meeting with one of their major materials suppliers, pipe and plastic fittings firm Philmac.

Boardroom at SCS's new premises at  Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Cork.

Bang on Christmas Eve, he was sent a link to the arrival back in Cork of this 40,000 sq ft industrial unit at the Doughlcoyne Industrial Estate on the open market, directly across the road from SCS’s previous trading base here at Wilton’s Sarsfields Road.

Updated 40,000 sq ft  new premises is 31-year old SCS's third in the same  Doughcloyne Industrial Estate location.

“I used to see it every day from my own office across the road, and said it was the only place I coveted,” he says, having just made the leap-frog move to new, larger unit to cater for the 31-year old firm’s growth, founded  by his father Frank.

Main  office 

Considerable upgrade work, to a rarely-seen standard for such units in Cork, including a boardroom/training room done to corporate level, was swiftly carried out. SCS moved in  April from a 20,000 sq ft unit to their new, revamped  40,000 sq ft one, vacated by O’Connell Transport, sold by Savills and acquired by Cushman & Wakefield’s Sean Healy for SCS. It’s their third unit in the Wilton location since 1990, and the firm now employs 42.

Stack and rack: South Coast Sales new premises, Doughcloyne Industrial Estate, Cork.

According to Mr Casey, SCS traded right through Covid-19 lockdowns as an essential sector business, with staff dividing into two teams, each working three 12-hour shifts per week, which meant moving from a five-day to a six-day week. 

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

SCS’s exclusive main products include Australian pipe and plumbing brand Philmac, and Farho electric heaters.

But, if their business is a bellwether for sectoral activity, Mr Casey noted  “the significant pick-up we had been expecting once construction site reopened a few weeks ago didn’t seem to happen.” 

Meanwhile, in a rapid series of musical chairs, South Coast Sales’ existing 20,000 sq ft building was sold on to Carey Tools, via Sean Healy of Cushman & Wakefield, acquired for Careys by Declan Hickey of Casey & Kingston in a c €2m deal reported here two weeks ago with Careys due to vacate their Albert Quay site by September.

The August 2020 demolition of The Sextant Bar, Cork next to  Carey Tool Hire to make way for redevelopment, by JCD Group.

Despite getting planning to relocate to a site at the Kinsale Road roundabout they got from JCD Group as part of their Albert Quay sale deal, that tool and hire company now has also plumped to invest instead at Doughcloyne.