Buncrana man
engineers success
10.08.21
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WHEN finalists for Irish
Entrepreneur of the Year were recently announced, one
name stood out to our readers. That is Buncrana man
Michael McKinney, Managing Director of Inishowen
Engineering in Drumfries. |
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Michael McKinney, Managing Director of
Inishowen Engineering. |
Michael set up his business
in the 1990s in order to work from his beloved Inishowen, rather than
leaving home to pursue a job in his qualified
trade. After completing his apprenticeship as a pipe
fitter welder, Michael highlights “There
wasn’t much work back then locally and I wanted to stay
in Donegal. Having a strong interest in machinery and
engineering I decided to try something different and
started Inishowen Engineering from there.”
Specialising in metal fabrication and finishing services
to national and international original equipment
manufacturers (OEM’S), Michael saw an opportunity to
grow the company into offering a full range of services
to these OEMs, which brings a product from a concept
stage to the finished article: “We see this as our
unique selling point, taking a product from concept
through the stages of design, manufacturing, finishing
and right through to assembly.
Scaling the company brought its challenges. Sizable
investment led to modernisation in the company’s
production line when it purchased Computer Numerical
Controlled (CNC) machinery and robotics for the
production process.
“There were only a few companies in our sector going
down this road at the time and because we were offering
these processes and with the improved efficiencies it
opened a lot of doors for us,” admits Michael.
From its humble beginnings, Inishowen Engineering growth
has led it to become one of the largest employers within
the Buncrana area and North Inishowen as a whole. The
company currently employs 130 people and has opened the
doors on a new, state of the art premises in 2019 which
helps to further streamline their production process. |
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Inishowen Engineering moved to new, state
of the art premises back in 2019. |
Michael’s organisation is
also part of a dynamic engineering cluster in Donegal
and specifically in the greater South Inishowen area
which includes among others E&I and Crana Engineering.
The sector within South Inishowen alone directly employs
in the region of 2,000 people.
Delegation is something that Michael strongly advocates
within his business. When asked what he felt was a
common mistake lots of entrepreneurs and leaders make,
Michael replies “trying to do everything yourself can be
something all bosses tend to do, but we feel delegation
is a core element to our businesses success.” However,
Michael also admits there is “no substitute to planning
and hard work,” traits all entrepreneurs must have in
order to succeed. He adds “Having clear timed goals
helps me achieve my objectives, but I also enjoy my work
which makes things a lot easier.”
Michael looked back at his achievements and admits
surviving the 2008 recession and rebuilding Inishowen
Engineering to become a bigger and better business than
it was pre-recession as his most important. “Going from
110 people to 45 in the space of 2 months was a shock to
us all. We had to re-invent how we did things, and we
adopted a lot of lean principles in manufacturing, which
brought us through the hard times.” It’s clear from
speaking with Michael he has the undoubted ability to
“adapt and overcome” any challenges which come his way.
Michael expects the industry to change massively over
the next three years as more companies begin to
outsource the manufacturing of their products to new
markets. Despite this, there are ambitious expectations
moving forward: “I would like to grow the business by
another 20-25% but also broaden our customer base over
the next three years”. To continue this trajectory in
growth, plans are in place to add a paint line within
the new buildings and the intention is there to purchase
the newest machinery to wave away the threat of
outsourcing and remain competitive.
Speaking about his 130 strong workforce, Michael says
that “the level of teamwork and strong and open leaders
creates an enjoyable work environment.” Michael adds
“the best thing about working at Inishowen Engineering
is employees gain the opportunity to learn and develop
new skills and advance within the business.” This
training is seen as extremely important for the company
to grow and nature the employees within the business. |
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