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The Hidden Hustle Podcast Podcast
EE30 Karl Zimmerer - Ireland's €200mil Water Engineering Company going Global

EE30 Karl Zimmerer - Ireland's €200mil Water Engineering Company going Global

The Hidden Hustle Podcast vor 3 Monaten

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1:25:57

Do you understand the complexities involved in getting a simple
glass of clean drinking water?

In this episode, we sit down with Karl Zimmerer, founder of
Glanua, to hear the incredible journey of building one of
Ireland’s leading water and wastewater engineering businesses and
taking it international.

Karl and his team has doubled the companies revenue in the last 4
years with Glanua on track to hit north of €200m in 2026.

Karl explains the hidden engineering behind something most of us
take completely for granted: water. From collecting and treating
raw water to delivering clean drinking water, collecting
wastewater, treating it and ultimately finding ways to reuse the
resulting resources, Glanua provides end-to-end engineering
solutions across the entire water cycle.

We discuss:

- How rainwater actually becomes the clean drinking water coming
out of your tap.

- Why Dublin’s reliance on a single major water source presents
such a significant challenge.

- What Glanua actually does and the enormous complexity behind
water and wastewater infrastructure.

- Why Glanua builds much of its equipment and infrastructure
directly on-site.

- Why data centres require significant amounts of water and the
solutions Glanua is developing to address this.

- Karl’s struggles getting the business off the ground and why
delivering an exceptional first job became one of his most
powerful marketing tools.

- Why relentless innovation and constantly challenging the status
quo allowed Glanua to compete against businesses generating
billions in revenue while they were turning over just €40–50
million.

- Growing revenue from approximately €40 million in 2014 to €80
million in 2019.

- How diversifying outside their core expertise created major
problems for the wider group when COVID hit.

- The incredibly difficult cash flow challenges Karl faced as
profits and cash generated by the core water business were needed
to support struggling parts of the wider group.

- How Karl stepped up to manage the combined Irish and UK
operations through one of the most challenging periods in the
company’s history.

- How Glanua ultimately became part of BHSL, led by Denis
Brosnan, and why the deal proved to be such a successful move for
the business.

- Glanua’s expansion into the US and why M&A and building an
exceptional team on the ground will be crucial to cracking the
American market.

- Karl’s perspective on work-life balance after dealing with loss
of his daughter when she was young and decades of building and
scaling businesses.

- And the first job he recommends his own kids get — and
why.Links & Resources:

Glanua : https://glanua.com/

Follow Karl on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-zimmerer/