Carlow is a well-established centre for industry. Here some companies tell the reasons why they have based their operations here.

T2 Computer Services

T2 was founded in early 2004 with the aim of providing IT services to local companies. Initially known as Carlow IT Consulting the company re-branded itself as T2 in order to grow its business beyond the Carlow area. T2 now provide website and software development services to clients throughout Ireland and the UK.

“I was working in Dublin for several years before moving to Carlow three and a half years ago,” says T2 managing director Andrew Tobin. “We couldn’t afford to buy a house in Dublin, and my wife and business partner, Jane, was from the Carlow direction and figured that we could buy a house and a business premises down here for the price of one house in Dublin. “I commuted for about a year after coming down here, and then we set up the business.” He describes doing business from Carlow as very good. “We have customers in Dublin, Cork, Galway and elsewhere and have no difficulty in serving them from our base here,” he says. “In our line of business location is not that important. In fact, we have clients that we have never met. Getting the right staff is not an issue either. We have five staff now, and most of them have moved here from Dublin. “People are getting sick of Dublin and looking to get out of there.

When you look at Carlow it’s a great place to live and work – it’s got every shop you can find in a major city and all of the amenities that you could wish for.” And business is thriving. “We provide three types of service – broad computer services to SMEs, high  quality website design and hosting, and software development,” notes Tobin. “We have recently developed a new flagship product – Academy – which is a comprehensive suite of software to assist in the smooth running of private colleges. “We have been nominated for a Golden Spider industry award this year, turnover has doubled in the past year and we have set a target of quadrupling turnover next year.”

SR Engineering

SR Engineering is involved in the installation and servicing of drying plants for the milling and malting industry and its customers including leading names such as Odlums, R&H Hall, Minch Malt, Guinness and Redmills. The company was established in Wexford by Dane Soren Rasmussen in 1987 before moving to its current base on the Tullow Road in Carlow in 2001. “I first came to Ireland in 1979 to install drying equipment for a Danish company and I sort of got hooked on the country,” says Rasmussen. “I was working here for about 11 months a year between 1979 and 1983 and came back in 1987 to set up my own company, having come to an agreement with my employer in Denmark and another Danish company to provide a service in Ireland on their behalf.” The move to Carlow was driven by a need to be closer to the market. “Most of our business is in and around the midlands and the move to Carlow brought us closer to our market,” says Rasmussen. “It is a very central location and is within one and a half hours of all of our main customers. We have increased our share of the market as a result. I would definitely recommend Carlow as a location to others. We can source nearly everything locally, it really is an excellent location.”

AGK Limited

Anyone who has used the multistory car park in either the Dundrum Shopping Centre or the Whitewater Centre in Newbridge will have had reason to be thankful to AGK Limited. This Carlow based company is responsible for the intelligent parking systems which not only tell you how many spaces are available, but precisely where they are. “I started the company in Dublin seven years ago,” says managing director Keith Gavin. “I had done a masters in DIT with a campus company, Appian Technologies, where I had worked on the development of the system for the multi-storey carpark in Dublin Airport. “Through my contacts with private carpark operators I found that there was a market for a company which specialised solely in systems to meet their needs.
“We started with a basic counting system to calculate the number of spaces available, and progressed to a variety of products including bollards, corner buffer units for pillars and so on.” He took the decision to relocate to Carlow in 2003. “I was from Carlow originally and decided to move back here,” says Gavin. “In reality there is no difference between being based in Carlow and Dublin. In fact, there are a number of significant plus points to Carlow. There is a very good supply of local labour, for example. We don’t have to advertise when we’re recruiting, personal contacts are enough. “Also we are very close to Dublin – I spend a few days a week up there with customers and I can leave here after 10 in the morning and be there in an hour or so, do my meetings and leave at 4.30 before the traffic. We have installations all over the country and we are very well located here to get to them.”

CSL

Mechanical, instrumentation and control engineers CSL was among the first of the Dublin based high-tech companies to belured by the attractions of Carlow as a good place to do business from.The company was formerly based in Ballymount, just minutes from the infamous Red Cow roundabout which was proving to be a huge bottleneck for staff and customers. A major company revamp in 2004 gave CSL a chance to look at their long-term space requirements.

   “With most of our engineering staff on the road throughout Ireland, the priority was a modern compact facility with high quality space for administration, stores, light assembly and workshop areas,” says managing director Kieran Holland. Much of CSL’s business was still in the traditional areas of water and wastewater engineering, where they supplied and serviced the process installations and control systems for local authorities and industrial clients. “By definition, most of the treatment plants, water reservoirs, and pipeline systems, even for urban water systems, are away from cities, with Dublin drawing its supplies mostly from Kildare and Wicklow, so access to them from a location like Carlow is actually easier,” says Holland. “In addition, new technologies– such as satellite-based monitoring and control – means that trouble-shooting by our service engineers can take place anywhere with access to the internet.” In developing new market areas such as the supply of water metering systems and hazardous gas detection instruments the company’s contracts are as likely to be in major industrial plants outside the Dublin area.

With a travel time of less than an hour from their former base, and staff driving against the main traffic flow, the company’s chosen location on the Dublin side of Carlow became as easy to get to as the Ballymount premises. “We designed and commissioned our own 800 square metre premises in the Deerpark Business Complex,” adds Holland, “and it has worked out very well for us. We’re part of a major industrial community in a town with a long tradition in both industry and science. “We have access to the resources of the institutes of technology in Carlow and Waterford, and both Carlow and Kilkenny, 25 miles away, are seen as excellent places to live. “Less than two years after we made the decision, we are well settled in to our new business premises and we are looking forward to many happy and successful years in a dynamic commercial location.”