Barry O’Donovan set up IWM in 1974. He spent his first year in business serving customers such as Jacobs Biscuits from his garage in Cabinteely. In 1975, as the business grew, Barry left his garage behind and moved into a more suitable premises in Grange Mill on the Newcastle Road. We are now located at Baldonnel Business Park in Dublin 22.
Barry built the business by designing comprehensive and effective water treatment plans that kept industrial plants and equipment free from scale deposits, corrosion and bacteria, thereby reducing downtime and maximising lifespan. From the start he manufactured chemical products to service Cooling Towers, Steam Boilers and Closed Circuits.
To this day we are the only water treatment company in Ireland to manufacture our own chemicals onsite and as a result we are unaffected by the supply chain issues caused by Brexit. We also supply a range of control, storage and dosing equipment to ensure that optimum chemical reserves are maintained in the treated water.
Barry’s son Conor joined IWM in 2005. He went on to set up the company’s water hygiene division – which focuses primarily on legionella control in healthcare facilities – and was appointed as a director in 2011. Since then Conor has consolidated the business and has focused on steadily growing the business year-on-year for the past decade. Under his stewardship IWM have built a very strong and loyal customer base in both the public and private sectors
In late 2020 we concluded a deal with German company EnviroWater to acquire our business. Headquartered in Rossdorf, near Darmstadt, EnviroWater has been in business for 44 years. In this time they have steadily built a multi-national presence and employ 750 people across their operations in 16 different countries. They are owned by Skion Water and supply sustainable system solutions worldwide for all the tasks involved in industrial water treatment and the treatment of process water, circulation water, cooling water, boiler water and wastewater.
This is a great opportunity as we now have the support of a major European organisation which will help us to consolidate our position in the Irish market. We also have access to new technology and service offers which we will be able to introduce to the Irish market in the near future.