If CRH chief Liam O'Mahoney feels any grief it is when he doubts whether Ireland is proud of his expanding group, writes Jane O'Sullivan, Markets Correspondent

Since he took over as chief executive of CRH three years ago, Liam O'Mahony has spearheaded the company's continued expansion around the globe.

With 1,600 operations in 22 countries, CRH has some 50,000 employees, sales of more than €10 billion and operating profits of more than €1 billion.

But despite being the darling of international investors, impressed with its consistent record of earnings growth and its high standards of corporate governance, the company has not enjoyed the same level of popularity on its home turf.

In an article published last September, the New York Times dubbed it "the building materials company Ireland loves to hate".

Being linked to the Ansbacher controversy through its former chairman, the late Des Traynor, did not do much for public perception of the company, although Mr O'Mahony insists that Traynor "abused his trust" and CRH did not knowingly assist him in his illegal banking activities.

More recently, the company has become embroiled in the illegal dumping saga after it was revealed that such dumping had taken place on one of its sites near Blessington in Co Wicklow. However, Mr O'Mahony believes that CRH has received less than fair treatment on this issue in which it had "no hand act or part".

"CRH was not involved in the dumping. The company that owns that land is Roadstone Dublin. Roadstone Dublin was not involved in the dumping. Nobody in the company authorised it and to my knowledge nobody was aware of it," he says.

Since before Christmas, the company has been actively working with Wicklow County Council, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Garda to ascertain the nature of the dumping and identify the perpetrators, he says.

"We understand the gardaí are following a specific line of inquiry but we are not at liberty to comment further," Mr O'Mahony says, adding that the company does not want to "prejudice the bringing to justice of those responsible".

He denies what he describes as "ill-informed" media reports that there has been illegal dumping at another CRH site, Huntstown in north Dublin, and notes the company's Irish management has carried out an extensive review of its properties throughout Ireland and has not been able to identify any other instances of illegal dumping.

"I understand this is a very sensitive issue for the country at large. I am assured that there are no other sites with dumping of the nature in Blessington.

"But I just cannot understand the bad press CRH has got. We have been upfront, forthcoming, fully disclosing the thing, unlike lots of other people who have gone to ground on this issue."

Another contentious local issue for CRH, and one which looks set to surface again shortly, relates to competition. In the past, the company has been accused by smaller rivals of using unfair trade practices to put them out of business - accusations CRH denies. The issue is set to crop up again at the end of the month when the Supreme Court hears a case taken by Framus Ltd against CRH and others alleging unfair competition.

Mr O'Mahony says that "we believe we have perfectly good defences in relation to that", adding it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Despite the sometimes high profile of the local controversies, Ireland accounts for just 7-8 per cent of CRH's total sales and, as the company expands, this seems set to fall further. And expanding through acquisition is arguably the thing that CRH does best.

Spending on acquisitions last year came close to €1 billion, and Mr O'Mahony and his management team remain keen to continue to build on CRH's position as the fourth-largest building materials company in the world and the largest in the US.

Doubling the company in size every five to seven years remains the broad aim, although Mr O'Mahony points out that account has to be taken of economic circumstances.

"If you're in tougher markets, the focus has to be on grinding out a performance and making sure that the foundations are good and strong, but also keeping up the thrust of acquisitions at the same time," he says.

In broad terms, the company aims to deliver one-third of the 12-15 per cent annual growth its strategy implies from organic growth in its existing businesses with the balance coming from acquisitions.

Currently, some 60 per cent of CRH's business is based in the US with the remaining 40 per cent in Europe, a balance with which the company is broadly comfortable for now.

"In the long run, we've always said we'd like to be roughly 50/50, with an extra 10 per cent in developing regions. That adds up to 110 per cent but that's deliberate because these numbers aren't cast in stone and it will vary depending on where the action is at the time."

In recent years, the action, in CRH's view, has very definitely been in the US, a market where it remains very comfortable.

Mr O'Mahony, who was substantially US-based from 1986-2000, remains a fan of the US economic model which he describes as "very powerful".

"It has its deficiencies and drawbacks, and people can talk about quality of life. But the European model hasn't been nearly as powerful. It seems to me staggering that, in the 1990s, the US grew by 20 per cent more in economic terms than mainland Europe."

CRH has also been testing the waters outside what Mr O'Mahony describes as "the comfortable areas of Europe and the US" in recent years.

"We are definitely looking outside the developed Western world. Whether that's going further east in Europe or going to the broader eastern Mediterranean or further into Asia really depends on opportunity," says the 56-year old, who originally hails from Mullinahone in Co Tipperary.

The company has looked at opportunities in China but none has made sense to date.

"I would be disappointed if we don't end up with a presence in that part of the world. . . At some stage, if CRH is going to be a true world leader, we have to have some presence out there but it doesn't need to be today or tomorrow," he says, adding that CRH won't be risking "the family silver" on any overly adventurous deals.

So what does Mr O'Mahony see as the key challenges for the business?

In the short term, like many other business leaders, he is concerned about the huge spike in oil prices because of the uncertain situation in the Middle East. Compounding the situation has been the recent civil unrest in Venezuela, which produces a lot of the heavy crude oil that goes into making the bitumen needed by CRH.

"The combination of Iraq and Venezuela has been very difficult for us and managing that challenge is one of the key tasks for us in 2003.

"Elements of it are outside our control because we can't say what will happen in Iraq. We can't influence it but we clearly have to run our business as tightly as possible and clearly we have to recover what we can through prices in the marketplace in the US for our products."

In the longer-term, Mr O'Mahony believes CRH must ensure it has the talent to continue to grow and develop. "The way to lose the run of ourselves would be to grow and not have the right management structures and the right people coming on who will manage the business," he says.

A large part of his time is spent on reviewing succession and making sure the company has the right people coming through in the regions. But this is not to suggest that Mr O'Mahony, who joined CRH more than 30 years ago, has any plans to hang up his boots. When he took up the role of chief executive, his contract was for a five-year term, which will expire in around two year's time. But he says he has no plans to walk away "today or tomorrow", adding "I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm really proud of the company".

He believes that as the company becomes more international, of necessity there will be more non-Irish executives at the very top but is hopeful that it will remain close to its Irish roots.

"I would hope we would always keep our Irish dimension.I would hope we would always be proud of being Irish. . . we have spent 30 years growing this business and we'd like to think that Ireland is proud of us.

"If I ever feel any grief in life, it is perhaps sometimes doubting that," he candidly says.