Macroom business celebrates

IT was celebrations all round in Macroom recently as local company Cygnum celebrated 20 years in business. As one of the country’s leading, award-winning timber frame processing companies, the company initially employed just 30 staff back in 1997, but this has now increased to 130 with many of those from Macroom and the surrounding areas. 

Spanning 20 years of making timber frames for houses, homes (both one-off and in volume), hotels, apartment blocks, schools and other buildings the company also has plans to expand their design team and factory staff with a new extension.

‘Initially, as more homebuyers began to demand higher quality housing, we focused on producing frames for exclusive and technically challenging individual homes,’ said a company spokesperson.

‘This enabled Cygnum to develop a technical engineering and design department who are constantly driven to find ways to improve existing products and use cutting-edge solutions to exceed our clients requirements where possible, demonstrably setting ourselves apart from our competitors.’

By 2000, developers had begun to realise the numerous benefits of timber frame for Irish homes and the company established a new division of the business to supply this growing market. This led in 2004 to investing in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility equipped with a modern, efficient production line.

‘Further expansion and an eye on improving our service to clients in the UK saw us in 2007 open an office in Stowmarket, Suffolk. There we focused on the more technically demanding sector of the market, supplying timber frames for apartment blocks and hotels of up to seven storeys in height.’

In 2011, Cygnum built one of the UK’s first Passivhaus registered schools in Wolverhampton and the success of the project and quality of their work achieved widespread recognition to the extent that they are now the main timber frame supplier to other such projects in this market.

‘In 2013 we became the first Irish company, and one of only two in the UK and Ireland to have a Passivehaus system certified by Germany’s Passivehaus Institute.’

Three years later Cygnum was presented with no less than five awards at the Structural Timber Awards. The prestigious award ceremony truly made its mark on the timber industry rewarding outstanding projects, innovative products and dynamic people promoting excellence in structural timber across the industry.