Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Techrete’s precast solutions continue to drive sustainability in the sector 

What do major contractors such as John Sisk, Kier and Mace have in common? Answer: they all trust Techrete to provide the best quality, sustainable concrete façade solutions. With two 25,0000-square-foot manufacturing facilities and two design offices to its name, Techrete leads at the fore as the UK’s largest architectural precast concrete façade contractor, offering bespoke design, manufacturing and installation services to a wide variety of industry sectors. Producing up to 200,000 square metres of cladding every year, its multi-award-winning solutions have been part of some of the industry’s highest accolades, including the Mies Van Der Rohe in 2022 for the Grafton Architects designed Kingstown University Townhouse project. The company boasts an impressive, high-profile project portfolio across the UK and Ireland, which includes the Victoria & Albert Museum East, The Marshall Building at the London School of Economics, and the Visual Control Tower at Dublin Airport, all of which have one thing in common: the use of durable, high-quality Techrete products throughout. 

In 2025, Techrete is thrilled to celebrate its 40th anniversary, symbolising four decades of industry excellence. In honour of this milestone, Construction & Civil Engineering sat down with Mark O’Dea, Chair and Owner, to discuss Techrete’s current operations and what the next chapter may hold for the business going forward. He starts by sharing the history behind the company, from its initial inception to where it is today. 

“Techrete was formed in Ireland by Chris O’Dea 40 years ago. Chris was a newly qualified engineer with an idea to develop a type of company that was virtually unheard of at the time – one that would specialise in the design, manufacture and erection of architectural precast concrete facades,” Mark begins. “Techrete’s first facility was set up in Howth Co., Dublin. In 1992, the company expanded into the UK with an office in Leicester and with a manufacturing facility in Brigg, North Lincolnshire a few years later. By the early 2000s, we had outgrown our Dublin facility and by 2008, we had moved to a greenfield site in North County Dublin. With the industry booming and a significant portion of our work deriving from London, we opened another office near Waterloo in 2016. Today, we are the largest specialist of our kind in the UK and Ireland, employing 375 people across four locations and having completed over 700 projects all across the UK and Ireland.” 

Pioneering innovative products 

Techrete’s precast capabilities offer maximum design flexibility, making it the supplier of choice for a variety of different projects and applications. Manufacturing mostly architectural or non-structural products – with its structural sandwich panels also increasing in demand – the company’s solutions are customisable to any specification and can be designed to various shapes, textures and colours to suit the building’s performance and aesthetic requirements. No matter the project, the Techrete team works closely and collaboratively with all clients to provide the best possible solution to meet their requirements and expectations. 

“We are essentially three companies in one; we provide a bespoke precast concrete façade solution beginning with design engineering, then offsite manufacturing, followed by construction onsite. We are known for our collaborative style and work with architects and other stakeholders very early on to achieve the exact project requirements from budgetary, environmental and aesthetic perspectives. Our large team of in-house design engineers model and engineer our façades in a 3D environment, working to BIM Level 3, before being transferred to our production teams for manufacturing,” Mark explains. “Our panels come in a broad variety of shapes and finishes including acid etched, grit blasted, polished and exposed and one of the most popular choices over the past number of years is brick-faced panels whereby a brick slip is added to our mould before a concrete backing is poured and set with the brick. This achieves a timeless traditional finish, with all the benefits of offsite manufacture. Each project for us is completely different – we produce a bespoke product every time which can come with challenges, but it’s also what sets architectural precast concrete apart from other manufacturing businesses. Our site teams erect our panels to the structures, achieving weather tightness in a much faster way than with traditional building methods. 

“We work mainly in large scale residential and commercial, but also in various other sectors such as healthcare, justice and education. Many of our working relationships with our contractors span decades and we complete multiple projects with some of them each year. We pride ourselves on the close relationships that we have formed over the years with our customer base and became known early on for having the expertise to tackle the most complex façade designs.” 

With a continuing commitment to innovation, Techrete is constantly pushing the boundaries of possibility and pioneering exciting products to transform the construction sector. Its most recent release is a big win for sustainability: a new lower-carbon concrete range designed to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in embodied carbon. This launch was the result of a strategic R&D programme, supported by Enterprise Ireland, and involved a significant upgrade to Techrete’s Dublin batching plant and the implementation of new, state-of-the-art technology. 

Low-carbon concrete 

“In anticipation of the release of the new standard for concrete in 2023, which allows up to 65 per cent cement replacements, we have been running multiple R&D programmes concurrently to develop new mixes in our lab which reduce embodied carbon by up to 50 per cent. These recipes include a wide range of powders, admixtures and ingredients, which, combined with the variety of products we offer, meant that to produce these new mixes at scale, we needed to completely upgrade our batching plants in both Dublin and North Lincolnshire to handle them,” Mark reveals. “We worked with Skako in Denmark for over a year to develop significant enhancements to the heart of our Dublin factory: the batching plant. This new plant includes two new concrete mixers, three new powder silos and a new pigment dosing system, which reduces the amount of pigment required whilst maintaining consistency. 

“The upgrade to the batching plant saves 1000 tons of carbon annually at our Dublin site, representing a significant reduction to our annual cement usage and contribution to our carbon reduction goals. By the time our new plant is completed in North Lincolnshire, we will be saving a combined 3000 tons of carbon annually. The world is changing so quickly and the industry is simply demanding that we provide a concrete product that is as low carbon as possible and this investment was a crucial part in delivering on that demand.” 

Championing circular economy 

This unique new product falls perfectly in line with Techrete’s wider sustainability strategy, as well as enhancing its clients’ own efforts. Whilst sustainability remains a buzzword for many, Techrete is actively investing in new ways to reduce its environmental impact. 

“We adopt a holistic approach to sustainability and are proud of our long history of investing in the sustainability of our facilities. Features at both our factories include combined 1140kW capacity solar arrays, rainwater harvesting, storage ponds for water that is captured on our roofs and other hard surfaces for re-use in our manufacturing processes, thousands of trees maturing on our premises and a ground source heat pump for geothermal energy for our Dublin office,” Mark says. “Part of our strategy is to maximise our circular economy, and we are developing novel products that incorporate waste materials into our products, which has the dual benefit of reducing the quantity of waste that leaves our factories and the quantity of virgin materials that we use. 

Sustainability strategy 

“We also hold IS0 certifications for both our energy and environmental management systems (IS0 14001 and ISO 50001) and consistently achieve the highest rating for our responsible sourcing (BES 6001 – Excellent). We are also audited annually as part of the British Precast Sustainability Charter and have won numerous green awards for our ongoing dedication to carbon reduction.” 

Building upon previous legacies, it’s clear to see that Techrete is well-equipped for a prosperous future filled with further growth and innovation. For the remainder of 2025, the company is prioritising the publication of third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for even more of its products, which will confirm the carbon figure of each panel and help to achieve decarbonisation goals. Techrete is passionate about such goals, aiming to be as close as possible to Net Zero by 2030, all whilst continuing to lead the market with sustainable, precast concrete and further strengthening its geographical presence. In light of its 40th anniversary, Mark concludes our conversation by reflecting on Techrete’s journey thus far, discussing the key factors that have contributed to its longevity and ongoing success. 

“Continuous improvement is something that our late founder always believed in and it is something that has been deeply ingrained in the company; we are always striving to move forward and never rest on our laurels. The world around us is changing so rapidly and it is this culture of continuous change within the company that is going to keep us at the forefront of our sector,” he finishes. “We have a long history of retaining employees over many years – some of our current employees have been with the company since the very beginning, or close enough to it – and it is these people who provide a fantastic source of knowledge and support to our newer personnel.  Finally, we are known for our collaborative and proactive approach among our clients and it’s this attitude that keeps our clients coming back to us time and time again.”  

www.techrete.com