Limerick-based company set to buy prime site in midlands town
A LIMERICK-based engineering firm that specialises in data centre development has received the green light for a €1 million deal to develop a big manufacturing and training facility on a prime site in Portlaoise.
Kirby Group Engineering, which had a €400 million turnover in 2021, describes itself as a leading mechanical and electrical engineering contractor operating across Ireland, the UK and Europe, and directly employing over 1,200 skilled professionals.
The firm, which is headquartered in Raheen, provides full mechanical and electrical contracting services as well as specialist high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) design and construction services to clients across a number of different sectors including Data Centres, Life Sciences, Industrial, Commercial, and Substations and Renewables.
Laois County Councillors have given council management the green light to sell land 3.42 hectares of serviced land at the J17 National Enterprise Park near Portlaoise, beside the M7 motorway.
Before giving the go ahead at a meeting on Monday, councillors were given an outline of what could be on the cards for the site.
"It is the intention of Kirby Group to develop a multi-purpose facility to support and promote the Kirby business Off-site Manufacturing (OSM) offering to their blue-chip clients, in Ireland and across Europe. The purpose of the facility, it is to be an OSM manufacturing and training centre of excellence," it said.
Kirby says it hopes to have 50 people employed by 2024. The list includes apprentices, engineers, electricians, fitters, managers, receptionists.
The councillors were told the facility will be up to 40,000 square foot in size and that Kirby intends to build an "aesthetically pleasing state of the art facility, with global blue-chip clients can visit".
Council management says Kirby intends to do all the groundworks that will facility the plant's growth as business grows.
Councillors were told that Kirby works with businesses in the data/pharma/life science/medical device sectors . It says the firm helps these companies enhance energy efficiency. Kirby intend to showcase this client offering on their own facility with a low carbon footprint design. The project will include a large solar photo voltaic energy source for the facility.
Kirby plans to apply for planning permission in 2022. The company's board wants to start construction this summer, subject to planning approval.
In 2020 Kirby says it delivered a number of hyper-scale data centre projects and reached €293 million annual turnover.