LDC Top 50 2025
Breandan Flynn
Executive Chair
IES Utilities Group
Breandan Flynn has done every job going in the utilities industry, from digging holes for pipes to installing telegraph poles. Even now, as Chair of IES Utilities Group, he can often be found in the yard.
“It’s the only time I can switch off,” he admits. He bought the loss-making business back in 2018 and has transformed its fortunes. “We have an order book worth £450 million, with extensions of £550 million.” Talent shortages plague the industry, so Flynn recruited 500 linesmen from South Africa, which will help him expand into Europe. He says there’s no problem he can’t solve: “If I say I’ll do something, I deliver it.”
I’m driven by solving problems. That’s what fires me up.”
Q&A
What drives you?
I’m driven by solving problems. That’s what fires me up. The goal for me is to create something to last. I have built a solid business that clients can turn to with their problems. Power companies during the winter storms in 2025 have told me that without IES, they’d have been snookered. I want that to be my legacy.
How did you get to where you are today?
Having left school at 14 with no qualifications. I came to England when I was 17 and started digging holes for the gas and water companies as a labourer. Then I started tarmacking, learning the trades as I went along. At 22 years of age, I set up my own business. That company was bought by a French PLC in 2015 and I was on a noncompete for three years. A guy who owned a utilities business contacted me in the back end of 2019, asking for help. He owed money all over the place and was about to lose his house. I felt sorry for him, so I took it over.
Are you committed to sustainability?
90 per cent of everything we excavate from out of the ground gets turned into a product that can be used in the construction industry. In a past life, all that muck would go to landfill. We stop companies quarrying virgin stone and save a lot of driving because they tip in our yard and collect what they need to continue the job.
