Kerry testing lab to double turnover to €6m

Southern Scientific, a testing laboratory in Farranfore, Co Kerry, expects to almost double its turnover this year to over €6 million.

The company provides a range of laboratory testing services for water, soil and pharmaceuticals. It was founded by spouses Michael and Kate Murphy in 1994. Originally based in Tralee, Co Kerry, it is now headquartered in Farranfore.

The business has 75 staff and had turnover of €3.6 million last year. The idea for Southern Scientific grew out of practical concerns for the Murphys.

“It was a joint idea. My wife was working in the pharmacy business and she wanted to move to something where she could work from home while raising our children. I was working as a lecturer in IT Tralee, which is now MTU, and we used to get a lot of requests from the college to test various things,” Michael Murphy told the Business Post.

“We decided there was a business in that and it developed from there. We’ve moved a couple of times. We started from a shed at the back of the house to another location in Killarney, where we still have a laboratory, to our bigger lab now in Farranfore.”

Increased demands

The increased demands on businesses to ensure safety for consumers and the local population, including wildlife, helped Southern Scientific’s growth. The company’s testing services helped businesses adhere to these requirements.

“There was regulation, some of it from local authorities and others at a national level from the likes of the Environmental Protection Agency. There were also regulations for agriculture around nitrates. We also got contracts from various government bodies, such as Teagasc and Irish Water,” Murphy said.

“There was greater industry demand on the whole in terms of product certification.”

Murphy said that Enterprise Ireland had provided vital help in the growth and expansion of the business.

“We got a lot of help from the local authority in the first five or six years before we moved on to Enterprise Ireland. They were a big shot in the arm for us. They gave us quite a bit of help with employment grants and project development grants,” Murphy said.

‘Things are going very well with the business. We’re going to almost double turnover this year’

“They helped us to develop quality control systems and do research on testing. Enterprise Ireland has been very good to us. They also helped with the management and sales side, giving us access to courses, and they have also put us in contact with different partners in industry.”

Sadly, Kate Murphy passed away in 2022. Michael Murphy is continuing to grow the business but it’s still a team effort.

“Things are going very well with the business. We’re going to almost double turnover this year. We’ll hit over €6 million this year at a minimum. It’s a hard business to be in technically but it’s a roaring business from a marginal point of view,” Murphy said.

“We’re spreading our wings in Ireland. We bought a lab in Celbridge, Co Kildare this year and we have an office in Tuam, Co Galway. We’re trying to develop a model with satellite labs throughout the country. Once we have that rolled out, we’ll have another look at expansion into the UK.”

This Making it Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland.