Public company status has allowed this progressive firm to move into other lucrative areas, writes Barry O'Halloran.
WHEN SITESERV chief executive Brian Harvey took to the road to meet potential investors in the build-up to its flotation in late 2006, the company was seen as a play on the then booming building industry.
Its scaffolding and fencing businesses were focused on construction - not the happiest of sectors at the moment. However, Harvey points out that industry now accounts for just 12 per cent of turnover.
Over the 18 months or so of the group's life as a public company, it has switched away from building, and into a range of other sectors that are expanding in the face of a general slowdown.
It has managed this through a series of acquisitions. The biggest, and in some respects the most significant, is Deborah Services, the British business it bought in February for around €60 million.
Deborah provides specialist maintenance and services such as fire protection, asbestos removal and insulation to the power generation, nuclear and pharmaceutical industries.
A key advantage is that these contracts are also long-term, meaning that a proportion of Siteserv's revenues are predictable for up to five years. Finance director, Colm Nolan, points out that there are few businesses at the moment whose future sales are that visible.
