PROFILE - JOHN FLEMING:From building sheds in west Cork to building office blocks in Dublin, his rise has been meteoric, but as his company goes into examinership, he may be hoping his loyalty to his county is repaid, writes BARRY ROCHE.
THE NEWS that Cork property developer John Fleming was to seek the protection of the High Court for one of his companies marks a rare slip for a man whose fortunes, both literally and figuratively, have always shown a steady upward trajectory.
The application by ACCBank to have one of his companies, Tivway, put into receivership over an unpaid €21.5 million loan for an office block in Sandyford threatened the survival of Fleming’s entire group because of loan guarantees given by two of his other companies.
The High Court heard that the group had debts totalling more than €1 billion but decided to refuse ACCBank its application and instead granted Fleming his application to have an examiner appointed to Tivway, thereby giving him 100 days’ grace to come up with a solution. And coming up with a solution is far from beyond the bounds of possibility, given Fleming’s undoubted talent for spotting a business opportunity and developing it, as revealed by a survey of how he built up his business into a major construction empire over the past three decades.
The son of a fisherman from Seven Heads in the parish of Barryroe near Clonakilty in west Cork, Fleming was educated at Butlerstown National School and Clonakilty Vocational School before joining a local builder involved in constructing farm buildings. He set up on his own in 1975 and, equipped with just a Fordson tractor and a small cement mixer, he began constructing outhouses and sheds for farmers in the area, with the occasional public job such as the handball alley in Timoleague.
But Fleming was already showing a flair for innovation, buying moulds to cast concrete panels for farm buildings and buying his own Readymix truck to deliver his own concrete and then hiring it out to other builders when he wasn’t using it. He teamed up with the late Pat Hennessy of Clonakilty to build Leap National School in 1985 and from that he began winning contracts with Cork County Council, including the Skibbereen Water Scheme, which in turn led him into civil engineering work building bridges.
One of Fleming’s big breaks came when he won the contract for the Glanmire Bypass in the late 1980s; one source tells how Fleming’s organisational ability helped the company deliver on a huge concrete bridge that had to be built to support a part of the road. “The bridge had to be poured in one go, so there were cement lorries arriving every three minutes. John helped out with the pouring in the morning, flew to London for a meeting, came back that evening and poured more concrete and then took all the men out for a meal.”
Continually expanding, Fleming Construction was also diversifying, with the company moving into retail and industrial parks, before moving into house building in the 1990s as Fleming bought up landbanks in towns such as Ballincollig, Macroom, Kinsale and Killarney. Underpinning the expansion was an innovative approach, Fleming quickly recognising the value of pod construction where regular pods are built off-site and then assembled on-site to create the rooms of a house, with electrical and plumbing services added after.
He set up two structural building firms – Vision Module and Fusion Building Systems, both based in Ringaskiddy and employing 300 at peak – to manufacture timber- and steel-framed pods for use in his house construction business which by now had expanded to the UK. With a shrewd eye for an opening, he had spotted the need for the speedy supply of houses to meet the demands in the UK for social and affordable housing, and Fleming Construction was one of the first entrants into that sector of the market in the British midlands.
BY NOW HE had also expanded his business to include hotels and, after overcoming some initial planning hurdles, he built the luxury Inchydoney Hotel and Spa treatment centre just outside Clonakilty as well as the Radisson Hotel in Limerick. But arguably his most successful venture into the hotel business was when he succeeded in buying Fota Golf Course from the Killeen Group in 2004 for €50 million and developed a golf resort with some 280 lodges and a five-star hotel which he leased to the Sheraton Group.
He also expanded into the Dublin residential market, including apartment developments in both Stepaside and Sandyford where he paid €165 million for a 7.7-acre site at Rockbrook and obtained planning permission for 880 apartments. Fleming’s move towards diversification has more recently seen Fleming Construction team up with SWS Group in a wind farm project in Hungary, while the company has also begun building a biofuel plant in Iowa which will be supplied by local grain farmers.
In April 2007, Fleming Construction was listed by the Sunday Business Post as the 16th biggest construction company in the country while, just a year later, the Sunday Times Rich List had him ranked as the 75th wealthiest person in Ireland, worth over €138 million. While Fleming’s personal wealth has dropped by an estimated €70m this year and he has fallen to 104th in the Sunday Times Rich List, he has always remained, according to those who know him, a remarkably modest and humble man.
Variously described as “down to earth” and “unassuming”, Fleming, a married father of five daughters, has shunned the extravagant lifestyle of helicopters favoured by some developers; just this week he travelled by train to Dublin for the company’s court appearance. A teetotaller, he is also intensely proud of his west Cork roots and remains committed to the area, sponsoring various clubs and community associations, including his own GAA club in Barryroe whose sky blue and navy colours feature on all his company’s hoardings and lorries. “He’s done it all in his own quiet way without ever looking for kudos,” says one Barryroe local.
Fleming’s commitment to the community extended to serving as a volunteer with the RNLI Courtmacsherry Lifeboat for which he was honoured with a long-service medal two years ago; he continues to volunteer with the Butlerstown Cliff and Coastal Rescue team.
Fleming has also never made any secret of his political loyalties, being a close friend and associate of former minister for agriculture Joe Walsh for whom he canvassed; his membership of Fianna Fáil goes back long before he became a successful developer.
His party allegiance helped bring Fianna Fáil to the Inchydoney Lodge and Spa in 2004 for its annual “think-in” while, two years later, the then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern officially opened the Sheraton Fota Hotel and Golf Resort with a champagne reception. In 2007, he told the Mahon Tribunal how he left a cheque for £5,000 on a table at a Fianna Fáil fundraising dinner at a house in Dunkettle in Cork in March 1994 which was attended by then-taoiseach Albert Reynolds and other prominent Cork business people.
LOCALS IN WEST Cork speak of his loyalty to his employees, noting how many of those who started out with him in 1975 are still with him. “Those lads were loyal to him and he was very loyal to them and that’s a testament to the man,” says one local. One man in the building trade in west Cork tells how he never heard a bad word said about Fleming, and it’s a view echoed by Michael Hanley of the West Cork Enterprise Board where Fleming served as chairman of the Evaluation Committee for over a decade.
However, Fleming has not been without critics: An Taisce challenged him over his design for the Sheraton Fota Hotel and he was also challenged by environmentalists over the Inchydoney hotel and holiday home projects in Courtmacsherry and Castletownshend. “It would seem to me that he is used to getting his own way with the result that the company made no effort to amend their plan,” says Tony Lows of Friends of the Irish Environment.
WHEN OBSERVERS speak of Fleming’s commitment to his native west Cork, they invariably refer not to the decision to headquarter his company in Bandon but to his vision and drive in developing the Clonakilty Technology Park where up to 1,000 people are currently employed. “Because I’m from the area and wanted to do something for west Cork, it might have been the heart rather than the head that led to the initial involvement with the technology park,” he said. “We felt we owed something to west Cork because west Cork was good to us when we were starting.”
Now, as Fleming Construction lodges a rescue plan which will see the group carved up into a development/landbank division and a trading division, many locals in west Cork are hoping that Fleming’s business acumen will pull the group through.
“There’s no doubt but that John Fleming has a phenomenal analytical mind when it comes to assessing a situation, and when you look at the money he’s putting into west Cork, everyone is just holding their breath and hoping he has come up with a solution.”
CV
Who is he?Prominent property developer from west Cork.
Why is he in the news?Because he sought the protection of the High Court for one of his companies over an unpaid loan which could have threatened his entire Fleming Group which includes one of the country's biggest construction firms.
Most appealing characteristic:His drive and determination to get a job done and his willingness to sponsor local groups without seeking any reward.
Least appealing characteristic:His critics say that he's used to getting his way and is unwilling to compromise.
Most likely to say:"C'mon lads – let's roll up the sleeves and get stuck in."
Least likely to say:"That's it – I'm out of here, I'm quitting."