Pipe Dream

Condron Concrete celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and commissioned a special tractor unit that charts the company’s history in trucks and pays tribute to its legendary founder.

- Dan Parton

Keeping a secret these days is difficult, especially so in a company where the staff are particularly close-knit and everyone knows everyone else’s business. So for the design of the 50th anniversary truck at Tullamore based Condron Concrete to stay under wraps until a big reveal at a company event took some doing.

“Only about five people knew what the truck looked like ahead of the day,” explains Condron Concrete’s transport manager, Kevin Maher. “We presented it in front of all the workers and the Condron family. The only two Condrons who knew were managing director John Jnr’s sons Alex and Ryan. We presented it to the crowd at 4pm and it was very well received. John Condron was thrilled with it – he didn’t expect it to come out this good.

“It was difficult to keep it a secret though. We hid it in a shed at the back of the local Iveco dealer and we did the bulk of the work in the last two to three weeks in private and no one was allowed to see it.”

The project was a collaboration between Kevin, Alex and Ryan Condron and Conor Jennings from Condron Concrete’s long-standing truck dealer Longhaul Commercials.

I wanted to do something that was classy but tasteful, and there is a fine line,” explains Kevin. “We went down to Conor’s yard one day and pulled some different ideas from trucks he had and then we also threw our own stamp on it with a few little quirky things, such as the motto on the door from an interview John Condron Sr gave on YouTube saying ‘I hope I did good’ – those were things about the man himself.”