TradeNames: Tracing its origins to the construction of a doghouse, KellyBarna now erect around 140 sheds a week during the summer, says Rose Doyle

The Kelly family live and work on a height with a vista in the green and glorious heart of Wicklow. Have done for lifetimes' now, since Bernie Kelly's ancestors moved from Brittas to Glenealy to farm in 1860. They're farming still but along the way the Kellys have more than dabbled in the business of garden buildings.

In the old Mill on the farm, itself a part of Glenealy since 1904, they've been producing sheds in variety and, these days, veritable garden dwellings, since 1968. As KellyBarna, they rank among the foremost and venerable in the business and, with their recently introduced Baltic Cabin, have brought an expanded Europe to Glenealy and to their customers nationwide. And it all began with a dog house.

Bernie Kelly made the dog-box and mostly tells the story. Teresa Kelly (nee Kelly, which kept things simple when they married in 1967) more than aids and abets and Alan Kelly, the son running things, adds gently to the story as develops. The sun shines, the gardens around the Kelly home bloom and work in the nearby mill goes on apace. Life in Glenealy is an integrated business.

Bernie Kelly is a man with a sense of the chronology of things. "The mill had been a sawmill since 1904," he begins. "We acquired it in 1972 but had been operating a small sawmill on the farm from 1968, producing panel fencing and delivering it all over the country. But we didn't have three-phase electricity power and with scraping and scratching, we managed to buy the mill when it came for sale."

The mill was run down but to Bernie, Teresa and baby daughter Sandra it was "magic". Then came the affair of the doghouse. Bernie again.

"We'd a break-in here in the house so we got a guard dog and I made a house for him," he says. "Our fencing customers included Mulveys, Mackeys, Murdock garden centres and so, based on what I'd learned making the house for the dog, we made a straightforward rustic garden shed and brought it around them all. They were impressed. The only other people making sheds at the time were Barna, in Enniscorthy. In time, when they went out of business, we bought them over. I was on my own in the beginning, with a couple of lads working for me but Teresa was the driving force behind it all."

"Dogsbody," Teresa interrupts, wry and smiling. "I can only take credit for half . . ." Bernie attempts. "I must remember you said that," Teresa says before Bernie continues the story with.

"The business developed through advertising, going round the country. The design was our own, we made the first rustic sheds in the country, by overlapping boards. We sold them for £135 in 1975, a good sized 8ft by 6ft shed."

Alan joins in the telling. "Over the years other sheds came on the market, pushing us to improve and be ahead of the posse."

"We had to compete," Bernie adds, "keep ahead of the fellows in back gardens making sheds, so we got new machinery and made more and more. We didn't find the 1970s and into the 1980s too bad but it's been a hard slog through the years just to keep up."

Through the years they produced a pre-cast concrete building, too, and acquired more machinery. Things went nicely, orders coming in for pre-cast garages, workshops,sheds. They're putting one up as a storage shed for a school in Avoca at the moment.

"We arrive, put down the base and, when the concrete's dry, we complete the job and the building's ready for use," Bernie explains. Such buildings cost between €4,000-€8,000.

The business grew thanks to "lots of hard work and racking of brains to keep ahead", Bernie explains and Teresa adds "we kept our heads down and worked". They got "a little more fancy" in time, adding "a bit of a veranda, an overhang to the roof, little things which gave a better look".

Labour, in those years was easily come by. "You could always lay hands on a few lads when you needed them," Bernie says.

But that changed, and so did KellyBarna. In 1999 Bernie, John and second son Bryan went to the US to source machinery. They returned with the contents of a mill in Pennsylvania and the result, once installed, increased production, cut labour costs and sorted safety and insurance needs. Labour difficulties were further sorted when KellyBarna took on their first six workers from Estonia. There are eight Estonians on the workforce now and they've made all the difference, opened a world of possibilities and new life in Glenealy.

"We work very much with the lads," Alan explains. "We know them all very well. Two of their wives have been over on holiday with their kids. Working here means they can buy their own places in Estonia."

Things Estonian moved on apace last year. "We asked Madis Kaosaar, one of the guys, to go back, source produce in mills there for us," Bernie explains. "Myself and Alan followed him, did a deal and since the beginning of the year have been bringing in our Baltic Cabin range, direct from Estonia with no middleman, in flat-packs."

Their new range, called the Avoca and the Glendalough, are in Nordic spruce and proving very popular.

Shed erectors tend to stay with KellyBarna, working for the company for periods of between 20-25 years. The Kellys offspring tend to stay around too.

"They're married but not gone," Teresa says. "Sandra lives at one end of the farm, Alan the other. She has two children and works in the accounts side of things. Bryan tried the business for a few years but it wasn't for him so he went back to banking, where he'd been already. Alan is the general manager. I've always been involved myself - with sales, accounts, all the different things that go into running a business. People need something for outside and a shed is much more affordable than getting something built."

They erect an average of 140 sheds per week in the summer months, catering to a customer base which has included Martin Cahill (aka The General) to super chef Conrad Gallagher. They will erect practically anywhere too, from Inish Boffin, to cliff tops to all manner of suburban homes.

Bernie says he runs for cover to the farm when the pressures of business get to him. It's all cattle with him now, he says, the work simplified by new machinery. Alan talks about how it is running a family business.

"You have to know and decide everything, deal with all the problems," he points out, "staff, accounts, advertising and, the really big one, machinery. I think we're the only garden shed company that deals with round wood, through all the processes until it's erected in the customer's garden. There's an awful lot of competition for the future so we'll just have to improve and push harder than ever."

Bernie grins: "While I slide out nice and easy into the farmyard," he says, "Alan's in the driving seat now."

Alan, gently acknowledging this, says "the superstores, Homebase and B&Q, are all doing sheds though nothing like ours. It's affecting all the Irish shed makers but we're the only ones bringing in directly from mill to garden so we can be less expensive when it comes to quality."

Bernie, predictably and mischievously, has the last word. "I still have my hand in," he says. "I do the tricky bits, the likes of saw sharpening, a big thing in any mill. I'm a saw doctor by trade, at it all my life. There's young blood needed in every business and," he nods at Alan, "this lad here has plenty. He'll go on and make changes and make things work."

KellyBarna sheds can be seen at Glenealy and at their new showrooms at 74-75 Heather Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin, 18.