Leading the kitchen revolution from Mayo

All across the country, people are enjoying and admiring kitchen and bedroom units without realising where they are made. But despite being somewhat under the radar for the general public, Turin Components Ltd of Mayo is very well-known and respected within the kitchen and bedroom manufacturing sector, both in Ireland and further afield.

Established in August 2008 by founders Donal and Michelle Walsh, the company began with just six employees. But since then it has left its humble beginnings behind and now has 72 people working at the facility.

And over the intervening years, it has confidently ridden through the storms of recession, pandemic and Brexit to revolutionise the kitchen and wardrobe industry through constant innovation, investment in world-class equipment, and, most significantly, by offering their trade customers, both at home and abroad, the opportunity to have their cabinetry bespoke manufactured to their precise specifications and exacting standards.

Headquartered in Shrule, Co Mayo, the innovative firm continues its mission to ‘inspire and revolutionise’ the kitchen industry and in doing so has enhanced its national reach with the addition of an 18,000 sq ft trade centre and collection depot in Cherry Orchard, Dublin.

General Manger John Byrne says one of the reasons why the company stands out from the crowd is its ability and dedication to allowing customers to customise their order and ensure it meets exact specifications.

“Upon visiting the 90,000 sq ft manufacturing site for the first time, most visitors expect to see enormous quantities of standardised, pre-assembled cabinets ready to be picked and dispatched,” he said. “They are genuinely amazed to learn that we custom manufacture every order, particularly given the precision, speed of production and quick turnaround which we work to on a daily basis.

“One of the reasons why we bespoke manufacture every order within days of receipt is because it ensures that our customers have a unique opportunity to have their cabinets made to their exact specifications. It also allows them to choose from a range of over 300 different Egger board styles and colours – 40 of which are constantly in stock – and from over 1,250 edging profiles.”

Byrne says that when walking around the manufacturing plant, visitors will notice a large volume of internal fittings and components constantly moving towards the assembly line – this level of productivity is due to a combination of smart logistics, state-of-the-art technology and a dedicated workforce.

“We run an incredibly efficient Just in Time stock system which ensures all the necessary internal fittings and components arrive, from numerous industry leading suppliers, as they are required for production,” he said. “This is something we are constantly monitoring, especially with the impacts of Covid and Brexit, and continually adjust to ensure our trade customers are not inconvenienced with out of stock or late items when it can be avoided.

“With a capacity to manufacture over 5,000 unique cabinets per week, technology plays a crucial role in enabling the company to maintain our forward-driving ethos and to deliver this level of customisation and service.

“In addition to this, our investment in developing industry leading technologies has not gone unnoticed within the sector, with our technological advancements reaching far beyond our internal systems to further support and assist in streamlining our customer experience.”

The custom-developed Easy Order System couldn’t be easier for customers, who, despite the high degree of customisation involved, also benefit from an instant quote.

“Our customers only need a mobile device or personal computer with an internet connection, and they will have the ability to select any board and edging combination, choose from a range of internal fittings from industry leading suppliers, have the capacity to alter the height, width and depth of any cabinet and receive a live price in nanoseconds,” explained Byrne.

“Then, once happy with the quote, even if a few weeks have passed, the order can be completed in just a few seconds with the simple click of a mouse and our dedicated staff will receive the order instantly and everything will spring into action. From this point onwards, our trade customers can track their order through the production process, viewing unique real-time data as their order advances through each stage.”

In addition to providing kitchen and wardrobe cabinetry to the trade, Turin Components Ltd also offers customers the unparalleled opportunity to select all the available door ranges and colour options from three of the largest door suppliers in Ireland – Uform, OS Doors and Trade Mouldings.

This, says the General Manager, results in thousands of possible combinations, which is always followed by prompt and efficient service.

“Once the desired product and colour are selected, the doors arrive to our customers hinged and hung on the assembled cabinet and ready for immediate installation, further improving the customer experience while reducing installation time and associated costs,” he said.

“Then, once manufactured, our committed dispatch team ensures that every order has its barcodes scanned to ensure completion, is carefully wrapped, and then palletised prior to dispatch. By ensuring that everything is in place before dispatch, when one of our dedicated delivery fleet arrive at our trade customers premises, the kitchen or wardrobe can be quickly unloaded and stored neatly, with only a small footprint being required to do so.

“Furthermore, our palletisation process not only reduces the amount of handling required to complete a delivery, but it is quite impressive to see a kitchen being craned up to the eighth floor of a development in one lift, with no manual handling involved and without incurring any damage to the product.”

Despite all the economic and global challenges, in recent years, Turin Components Ltd has shown that quality workmanship, value for money, efficiency, a hardworking team and excellent customer service is what it takes to ensure a successful, forward planning business.

“Our company has developed a considerable brand presence within the sector and has experienced significant growth in the past five years,” said Byrne. “This success, coupled with the company’s dedication to revolutionise and innovate within the kitchen and wardrobe industry, is in no small part due to the calibre of its people.

“We have been truly fortunate to have developed such a strong and cohesive team lead by owners and directors Donal and Michelle Walshe, myself as general manager, Linda Crean, National Sales Manager and line managers Peter Clarke, Padraig Mullin and Donal Kelly.

“Coupled with the enormous sacrifices made by the owners in the early days to establish the company is the unequalled level of commitment, expertise, dedication and effort brought to bear by the entire team.

“Everyone from our line managers, production staff, office and administration personnel, sales teams, warehouse operatives, drivers, etc have played a crucial part in our success and will continue to do so. And we believe that it is this level of commitment which makes Turin Components Ltd truly stand out from its competitors.”