Something in the Eire

Everyone has heard the saying ‘the luck of the Irish,’ but ask Tom Kelliher about the success of his business Eire Contractors and it quickly becomes apparent luck has little to do with it. Instead Tom will tell you that the success of Eire Contractors is down to hard work and smart equipment choices – though he admits he’s lucky to have a great team of people working in the business.

“You can have the best operator in the country working for you but you can’t expect them to work at their optimum if you put them in unreliable equipment. Michael Schumacher would never have won a formula one race in a Datsun 180B!”

Tom says they have chosen the Kobelco machines for their reliability, fuel efficiency and excellent resale value. “Servicing is easy, but the big thing we have found is that the servicing is really only a maintenance requirement, as opposed to having to fix any machines. Parts are always readily available if needed – but we just don’t have anything ever go wrong with them.

The other big thing that Eire looks at is fuel consumption and the Kobelco’s are just flogging other machines that they are working side by side with. Good fuel consumption is simply dollars in the bank at the end of the day. When you have 18 excavators all out working, a slight fuel advantage fast becomes a big one.”

Eire Contractors currently have several big jobs in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and are never short on work. They keep tabs of what projects are coming up, and with work around the country they also have a big network of contacts, so a lot of work comes  through word of mouth. They have developed a good relationship throughout the years with the likes of AbiGroup and a lot of councils around the country.