Irish-founded specialised Australian construction firm C2O plans for a major expansion here
By John Mulligan
Copyright independent
Its revenue has jumped from A$46.2m (€26m) in 2023, a year after it was founded, to A$102.5m in 2024. It is expected to hit A$240m in the current year.
C2O is on the verge of buying a drone inspection business in Ireland, while it has been working on major infrastructure projects – primarily in the energy sector – in Australia and the Americas.
The company has also earmarked €2m for scaling its Irish operations and an additional €6m for international -expansion from an Irish base. C2O expects the acquisition in Ireland, coupled with its experience on major projects abroad, to help it pitch for business such as work on ESB transmission lines, the Dublin Metro and hydrogen production sites.
Among the projects it is involved in are a giant Tesla manufacturing -facility in Houston, Texas, where C2O is -responsible for the provision of telecoms, mechanical electrical construction completions and commissioning services.
It also worked on an LNG project in the Gulf of Mexico for New Fortress -Energy – the company that has sought to build an LNG plant in Tarbert, Co Kerry.
In Australia, C2O has been working on a number of major energy and transport infrastructure projects.
Mr Buckley is originally from Cork and owns 31pc of C20 through an Irish firm. Australian private equity group -Alceon, whose parent group has A$5.5bn of funds under management, owns 45pc of the group. There is a large number of smaller shareholders.
He said he is hopeful the company can bring back Irish people from abroad to work here on what he says is the inevitable energy transition that will happen here. Many of its employees are from -Ireland and are working on projects in Australia and the US.
“We’re really upskilling a lot of Irish people on mega projects and without a shadow of a doubt there will be an LNG terminal in Ireland,” he said. “I doubt it will be the one in Tarbert, but there will be one somewhere.”
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke is meeting Mr Buckley in Mullingar today. C2O held a global leadership summit in Kilkenny this week.
