DPS buys UK-based Alban Technical Recruitment

Specialist design and construction group DPS is establishing a foothold in the UK with the purchase of Alban Technical Recruitment.

DPS, which is based in Baldonnel, Dublin, designs and builds manufacturing plants for the pharmaceutical and high-tech industries. The company said on Thursday that it is buying Alban, which has offices in St Albans, close to London and Macclesfield in northern England.

According to DPS chief executive Frank Keogh, the Irish group will use its new acquisition as a base from which to begin offering full design services to industries in Britain.

DPS intends to grow Alban’s current workforce from 50 to 100 as it expands the business from outsourcing, its current focus.

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The pair began talks on the deal last year and continued despite the UK electororate voting to leave the EU last June. Mr Keogh said DPS may alter its expansion plans for Alban, depending on how the UK manages its exit from the world’s biggest trade bloc.

“Clearly, like everybody else, we will have to be alert and assess how the Brexit negotiations go and that will influence us as regards how quickly we invest and expand,” he said.

DPS had revenues last year of €126 million and profits of €6.8 million. The group employs 1,170 people, many of them architects and engineers, in Ireland, the US, Europe and Asia.