Suir Engineering Ltd., a fast-growing engineering services provider across Europe, has announced the acquisition of Taylor & Fraser, a leading mechanical and electrical engineering business operating in Scotland for over 100 years.

The news follows the recent launch of Suir Engineering’s first UK offices in London and Manchester as it expands its operations, and customer base, in the UK market. With a strengthened local presence, Suir Engineering is improving its ability to serve clients in the UK, capitalising on new business opportunities and bolstering its position in the competitive engineering sector.

Taylor & Fraser, headquartered in Paisley, has been a family-run business for 114 years. It provides mechanical and electrical engineering and construction services to a wide range of public and private businesses and organisations.

“The acquisition of Taylor & Fraser is part of our ambitious growth strategy,” said John Kelly, CEO of Suir Engineering.  “The team brings with it a wealth of mechanical and electrical engineering (M&E) expertise, and an outstanding legacy built over three generations of this highly regarded family business.

“The acquisition strengthens our presence in Scotland and across the UK, allowing us to build on established local market relationships while providing a platform for future growth.  We now have a UK presence at three key locations and have further plans for expansion in line with the multi-billion pound market demand that we are seeing in our sector.”

Like Suir Engineering, Taylor & Fraser has an outstanding reputation for its M&E standards and highly skilled workforce. The acquisition puts Suir Engineering well placed as one of the few Irish engineering contractors with a Scottish entity.

Taylor & Fraser will become a Suir Engineering company but will continue to operate under its existing name. There will be no impact on the 180 employees.

Scott Taylor, Director of Taylor & Fraser, said: ”We are delighted to become part of a thriving international engineering enterprise that will ensure Taylor & Fraser remains at the heart of providing mechanical and electrical engineering services in the UK for generations to come.

“We are extremely proud of our heritage which has stood us in very good stead for 114 years. Our clients have always rightly expected the highest standard of services and we know that operating within the Suir Engineering group will give clients great confidence that it will be business as usual and quality of service will be maintained.”

Since its establishment in 1906, Taylor & Fraser built its business as a provider of mechanical services with a reputation for delivering technical excellence to the highest quality standards and this has stood the company well, right up to the present day. More recently as part of a strategy to expand the business, the company set up a construction division to undertake building work relating to installing services. This has developed and this Division now undertakes multi-million-pound value projects in its own right as a principal contractor with a focus on specific niche markets. The most recent development has seen the setting up of an electrical contracting division which along with the other disciplines enables the company to offer complete turnkey packages to the market.

Top Ten

Headquartered in Ireland and operating across Europe, Suir Engineering reported a turnover of €429m in 2023. The business continued to grow throughout 2024 and is forecasting revenues of €550m for 2025, driven by the Taylor & Fraser acquisition, a strong project pipeline and a strategic talent acquisition programme.

€180m / £150m of revenue is expected to come from data centre projects which, according to John Kelly, is one of the key areas of growth for the business.

John Kelly continued: “By the end of 2025 we anticipate that Suir Engineering will already be among the top ten mechanical & electrical (M&E) contractors in the UK by revenue. The UK presents huge opportunities in two of our four specialist sectors, data centres and energy, power and renewables, and it is one of the biggest data centre territories in Europe.

The recent Critical National Infrastructure designation highlights the fundamental importance of data centres to the UK government, the local economy and society, generating billions of pounds in revenue each year.”

Opportunity

Suir Engineering employs over 1,600 people across Ireland, the UK, Germany, Denmark and Sweden and is exploring further markets in the region as part of its overall growth strategy.

John Kelly added: “The UK’s ‘Great Grid Update’ represents a major shift in infrastructure development with significant buildouts planned for on and offshore projects. This presents a significant opportunity for companies like ours, which is why aligning Suir Engineering with a company of Taylor & Fraser’s calibre is crucial to our business, alongside establishing a physical presence to support our market penetration.”

Sustained growth

Suir Engineering’s UK expansion is part of the company’s wider plans for sustained growth. Reporting 41 per cent year-over-year growth and an EBITDA of 5% in 2023, Suir Engineering is a top-five mechanical and engineering firm in Ireland.

Headquartered in Waterford, Ireland, and with offices in Dublin, London, Manchester, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Frankfurt, Suir Engineering has grown over 40 years to become one of Europe’s leading providers of mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering services. It operates in four core sectors: life sciences, energy, power and renewables, food and beverage and data centres.

Suir Engineering was acquired in 2022 by private equity group, Duke Street, from Dalkia and EDF Energy.

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