Waste management group AQS Environmental Solutions is to expand into Northern Ireland and initially create 10 new jobs in Derry.

The Tipperary-based firm, which provides drainage, environmental and waste management services, will set up a new northern Irish division with headquarters based in Magherafelt, Co Derry.

The company said the expansion was in response to demand for environmental services in Northern Ireland, adding that the move would enable it to service its national contracts more efficiently.

AQS's managing director Stan O'Reilly said the firm was seeking 32-county exposure to the semi-State, commercial and domestic sectors.

The move follows AQS's creation of 100 new jobs in Thurles, Co Tipperary, where it announced that it was investing €15 million in new national headquarters last September.

The new headquarters are based in the former BSN Medical factory, which closed in 2006 with the loss of 80 jobs.

Founded by Tipperary brothers Liam and Donal Kearney, AQS is part of the Arlo Group of environmental firms, with sister companies including organic waste handler Acorn Recycling and JHL Sales, a provider of specialised machinery to the environmental sector in the Republic, the UK and Europe.

The company, which provides "next generation" services to several local authorities, operates business hubs in Dublin, Limerick and Cork as well as internationally, and employs environmental engineers, logistics specialists, lab technicians and drivers.

Many of its clients come from the mining, pharmaceutical and food processing sectors, which often require specialist waste management handling.

It also has clients in the retail, construction, aviation, power generation, agricultural and transport sectors.

Operating in what is a growth sector, company founder Liam Kearney said at the end of last year that he intended to take its workforce to more than 160 over the next 12 months.