Norman Emerson Group One of Northern Ireland’s Success Stories

Two years after marking its 75th anniversary, the Norman Emerson Group continues to build on its solid foundations as one of Northern Ireland’s highly regarded success stories, a company that has survived recessions and pandemics, serving the quarrying and construction sectors.

As a family run business, based on the shores of Lough Neagh at Derryadd in County Armagh, the Norman Emerson Group has grown from humble beginnings when its founder began processing sand in the early 1940s. Today, with business interests extending globally in terms of international product sourcing and provision of niche sales to export markets, the company operates in numerous market sectors, including construction industry/concrete and aggregate supplies, horticultural/ sports turf surface solution supplies, and natural stone decorative hard landscaping supplies. It provides employment and subcontract work for over a hundred people and operates a large fleet of tippers, truck mixers, artics, crane lorries and other machinery, supplying its broad customer base with quality sand and gravel, ready mixed concrete and quarry materials, in addition to offering a highly regarded contracts service. The company is headed up by Managing Director George Emerson, while two of his brothers – Norrie, the eldest in the family, and Alan – have now officially retired. Norrie, however, can still be found behind the wheel of a forty-foot truck most days, while Alan still looks after the machinery and the yard at Ardmore. Geoffrey Emerson oversees the garage and maintenance operations within the company, and Kenneth Emerson runs the Lough Neagh department, with two sand barges currently operational on the Lough. Four generations of the Emerson family now work within the business, with Norrie’s eldest son, Production Director Colin Emerson, playing a pivotal role in coordinating and managing all aspects of the company. “We have always had a very ‘hands on’ approach and our diversification strategy over the years from the early 1970s onwards has stood the test of time,” says George Emerson. Norman Emerson Group is licensed to extract sand from Lough Neagh, and over the last decade the company has

Board of Directors, Colin Emerson (Production Director), George Emerson (Managing Director), Conor Jordan (Business Development Director), John Ferguson (Financial Director) and Philip Stone (Sales Director).

strived with its partners to formalise its operations on Lough Neagh in order to bring it in line with an evolving regulatory compliance standard. To meet compliance, the extraction process is heavily regulated and authorised via a planning permission which demarcates an approved extraction zone. The permission is shared with four other licensed businesses who have collectively formed the Lough Neagh Sand Traders Ltd. This allows the five businesses to coordinate their activities and speak with one collective voice in terms of managing their operations in line with regulations. Such coordination is essential given the environmental protective designations assigned to Lough Neagh. The company deploys the BS8555 Environmental Management Standard for management of its Lough Neagh operation, supported by its own in-house laboratory facilities where testing is carried out on all of the Group products. “Consistency is a major factor with companies using sand in their manufacturing processes, and we are constantly meeting those consistency levels,” says Colin Emerson. Investment is also a key to any successful business, and Norman Emerson Group is no exception, with multiple investments made over the past 76 years. The Company has embraced technology to drive efficiencies within its sand classification and processing plant, plant for automated packaging of aggregate, robotic palletisation of finished product, pan mixers for concrete, sand drying plant, offices, and showrooms, and fully utilises information technology for administration and transport.

Over the years, Norman Emerson Group has been involved in many notable contracts, more recently a 7,000 square metre building to serve as a delivery station for Amazon at James Park on the Mahon Industrial Estate in Portadown, supplying and laying the concrete base. Other major concrete pours included those for large supermarket stores such as Asda, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Lidl, and in the renewable sector, specifically concrete for wind turbines and anaerobic biodigesters. The company also supplied 80,000 tonnes of quality sand for the construction of the prestigious Nick Faldo Golf Course at Lough Erne Golf Resort, along with other golf and Gaelic clubs around the island of Ireland.

When Armagh brought home the Sam Maguire Cup from Croke Park, the game was won on a pitch made from Norman Emerson Group sand! Other examples range from landscaping works at the five-star Lyrath Estate and Spa in Kilkenny, to a newly created roof-top garden at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin, and Group products were also utilised for the new G Hotel in Galway, and at Coca Cola HBC Northern Ireland Limited.

What, then, does the future hold for Norman Emerson Group? “It’s been quite a journey,” says George. “We do keep an eye on the future which will be in the hands of the younger generation eventually. The company founders and current leaders aspire to leave a legacy of a thriving, vibrant business that will carry on well into the foreseeable future.”