THE ASSETS of Irish company Supplierforce have been acquired by US-based business information provider D&B. The product, which aims to help companies manage suppliers, will now be added to services already offered by D&B in areas including risk management and sales and marketing.

Declan Kearney, who founded Supplierforce in 2004, will manage the product from within D&B that we could only have dreamed of before,” he said. “We’re going from a small company trying to break into an international market to now having the access and route to market as well as the financial clout of D&B.”

Mr Kearney said Supplierforce as a company had performed well over the years but financial conditions forced it to seek voluntary liquidation in November of last year.

D&B then acquired its assets as it was seeking to “reinvigorate its proposition in this area of the market”, said Mark Aryaeenia, D&B’s leader for strategic growth in Europe.

“To make sure that we were successful post-purchase, Declan joined the business as well and that investment in Declan was very important,” he said. “The Supplierforce product had a very good reputation, Declan had too, so we wanted to make sure we brought that to the business as well.”

D&B provides companies with information to help them manage risk and suppliers better and has data on more than 180 million companies worldwide. As a publicly listed company D&B did not release details of the acquisition but Mr Aryaennia said it was a strategic move and one that would see significant investment over time.

Initially the Supplierforce product will be offered to customers in Ireland and the UK, with a view to a European expansion in the next year.