He’s the owner of office furniture and products business Edit Office, and has just put his money where his mouth is, buying a new showroom building in Cork and gearing up for expansion and additional employees in 2021 and beyond.

“Working from home is not quite the panacea everyone thought it would be, there are huge numbers looking to get back to working in an office when it’s safe to do so,” he says, noting that most of his staff “are kicking the doors down to get back in.”

The return to office-based work will come from later this year as the vaccination programme steps up and the pick-up will be unequal, on a regional basis, as workers balance the pressures of working from home and long commutes to cities from outer suburbs.

The office fit-out sector is like a bellwether for the economy “like the canary in the coalmine. It sees a downturn six months before a recession, and sees recovery months in advance too,” says Mr Lawlor, noting he has increased the value of stock held in Dublin from €800,000 to €1.1m, partly due to  Brexit delivery hiccoughs.

His company, a  trade supplier to the office fit-out sector, has staff in Cork, Dublin and Belfast, and he has just added a second Cork property to serve his business.

He employs 15 in Rathcoole Dublin where there’s a warehouse; 12 in Cork (at East Link Business Park, Carrigtwohill) and 5 in Belfast. Now, he has just invested €450,000 in a showroom unit and e-commerce hub at the East Link Business Park, in Cork’s Carrigtwohill, sold by Feredos a US based software firm via agent Amanda Isherwood of Lisney.

He expects to take on four or five new employee in the coming months to serve what he feels will be growth in demand with a return to office work, and with companies needing to upgrade their office environments to satisfy employees returning to their offices full-time or in a hybrid format.

Employers, he says, should be looking to refurb and reconfigure office workareas two to three months ahead of a planned return to office-based work, and adds he doesn’t see screens between workstations as being effective against an air-borne virus in the work environment.

He expects upgrade to include a lot more ergonomic sit/stand desks, and say his own firm’ offices have these throughout.

While primarily a trade supplier, he says the work from home necessity has given his business a fillip, instancing being a supplier to HSE and reveals Edit Office are supplying 30-35 orders for home workers a day, with four currently working “at a socially distant level” in his main Carrigtwohill unit, which he will retain as well as his new building nearby, which is being upgraded for showroom use.

Meanwhile, the same Lisney selling agent Amanda Isherwood has also confirmed the sale of a 2,800 sq ft commercial building in St Patricks Woollen Mills, Douglas, previous occupied by The Mills Interiors for c €315,000 to an office-style owner-occupier, who’ll move after a refurbishment later this year.

Details: Lisney 021-4275079, www/editoffice.eu