UNDER THE RADAR:IF IRISH manufacturing is on its knees, somebody forgot to tell Gerard Giblin. And if they did tell him, he obviously wasn't listening.

The 32-year-old Galway native's business, which specialises in building truck bodies, is not only holding its own in the tough world of manufacturing, it is actually expanding.

Work is to begin shortly on a new purpose-built manufacturing facility on a site that Giblin purchased in Gort, Co Galway.

"It is definitely going to allow us to have bigger capacity and offer more in terms of efficiency of business," says Giblin. "The site is fairly big, with room to expand several times over."

And there are other pluses to moving Giblin Truck Bodies from its current base in Doora Industrial Estate in Ennis, Co Clare, he says.

"We are going to be losing the rent factor and I will be paying off my own building, so that will be a bonus."

Not that it has been all plain sailing. Giblin says that manufacturing businesses like his own are feeling the strain from higher costs.

"Margins are tight in manufacturing. Costs are ever-increasing in terms of raw materials, labour and services."

Nevertheless, he says the company is still profitable, and has grown year on year since it was set up as a one-man operation. Projected turnover for this year will be €1.2 million.

"We haven't seen a slowdown in sales for this year. Overall, we are busier than we were last year. So we are happy with our level of business, and it is definitely increasing year on year."

Established in February 2005 and currently employing eight people, including Giblin himself, the company manufactures and designs truck bodies to various applications and sizes.

Manufactured to specific customer requirements and finished to an extremely high standard, the range of truck bodies manufactured from steel, aluminium and composites includes box bodies, curtain-siders, tipper bodies and specialised bodies.

"We make the standard bodies but some people might want specific requirements to meet their specific needs - say when it comes to moving furniture they want more access, better tie-downs and more space, so a furniture body would be more customised than a standard body."

Clients include independent truck owners and key truck dealers, including Truckcar of Limerick. It will handle everything from one-off orders to fleet orders.

Currently, its main area of operations is in Limerick, Clare and Galway, but Giblin is hoping that the new plant and premises will give the business greater scope to win orders elsewhere in Ireland.

"We are taking a little bit of business from the rest of Ireland but we would be looking to expand that as well," he says.

Giblin originally trained as a coach-builder with Bus Éireann and, after working with the State group for a number of years, moved to a few private companies where he got involved in building truck bodies.

The desire to do his own thing eventually saw him set up Giblin Truck Bodies.

He was still in his late 20s, a relatively young age for setting up your own manufacturing business.

"It is a young age," he agrees.

"But what is an ideal age to set up a business? I wanted to produce my own product and my own brand, and that's the primary reason why I did it."

The business has largely been self-financed up until now, but the new premises and plant will be bankrolled.

In the early stages, he received a small grant from Clare County Enterprise Board, which he said was a big help.

"The funding from Clare Enterprise Board went towards some engineering machinery in terms of steel-forming and steel-cutting. Our two biggest machines are a press brake and a guillotine. When I started off, I was buying in the materials pressed and folded, but we are now doing it on site."

He says this gives the company greater flexibility and saves on costs.

In fact, the biggest obstacle facing the company when it was starting off was space.

"You need big premises. I've been lucky in that I was working from premises at home, before moving to the premises where I am at the minute. And the next stage is the new premises."

Giblin says that running your own business means long hours and a lot of responsibility, but he's happy with his lot.

"It is demanding," he says.

"You have a lot less personal time, but overall I'm happier doing this than working for somebody else."

ON THE RECORD

Name:Gerard Giblin.

Age:32.

From:Gort, Co Galway.

Background:apprenticeship in coach-building with Bus Éireann.

Inspired by:The progression of Ryanair.

Admires:Bill Cullen of Renault Ireland.

Favourite Book:Ryanair by Siobhán Creaton.

Favourite TV programme:Political programmes.