HISTORY

 

 

James's Street Steel was established by Joe Kavanagh Snr. in 1974 with the purpose of taking the process of cutting and bending steel reinforcement bars off-site. Previously to this, his other company Steel Fixing Services Ltd., cut, bent and fixed reinforcement on the construction site. But with an ever increasing number of sites to supply it made sense to bring the machinery from the various sites together to a centralised location and supply the sites from there.

A site at 34 James's Street was acquired and James's Street Steel was born. The facility at James's Street in the early years was no more than a field with a couple of croppers and benders and a pile of stock steel. Adjoining properties were purchased over the years and in the early 1980's a factory was erected. This factory was extended in the late 1980's and again in the early 1990's to accommodate the growing company and up until 2007 it was the home to a modern rebar processing facility. At the end of 2007 the company moved from the James's Street factory to a purposed built facility in Greenogue, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.

Machinery in the early days was very basic compared to the machinery available today. Bars were origionally cut on bar croppers, one of which is pictured below. Later the cutting process switched to a shearline which transported bars though an Arnold Aligator Shear  to be cut. This shearline was subsequently replaced by a fully automated hydraulic RMS Shealine, one of three that are currently in use today. The bending machines too have evolved from the basic ones origionally used on sites to the computerised ones which can be seen today. Table benders were used in the early days to bend every bar but nowadays automatic from coil link machines and  computerised double benders have reduced the benders workload.

When founded the company concentrated on supplying construction sites in the Dublin area with one truck, whereas nowadays the company operates a fleet of trucks and delivers to construction sites nationwide.

One thing though that has remained unchanged since day one is the dedication of the company to give our customers what they want - an unrivalled service. Quality product delivered as the customer wants it and delivered when the customer wants it.