Kirby Engineering gets green light for major Portlaoise expansion

Kirby Engineering Group has been granted permission for a major expansion at its Junction 17 Enterprise Park base in Portlaoise. 

An Irish company with a global presence, Kirby has become a global leader in Electrical and Mechanical manufacturing since its foundation in Limerick in 1964. It now employs 1,800 people directly. 

In November 2024, the company officially announced the creation of 50 jobs when it opened its €8m Portlaoise base which is designed to produce components for projects across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe.

Due to the success of the development, Kirby has decided to consolidate some of its operations to its Offsite Manufacturing Site(OSM) in Portlaoise.  

“Kirby have committed to the Portlaoise area through the original siting of their OSM HUB and the success of same has led to the requirement to immediately expand and further enhance the delivery capacity of the site,” planning documents lodged with Laois County Council stated. 

They plan to turn the Portlaoise base into “a purpose-built central administration, training and manufacturing centre which will produce prefabricated modules for distribution to the many Kirby sites continent-wide to improve quality and reduce on-site installation time.”

The application, which has been approved subject to 18 conditions, sought permission to “construct a light industrial unit with a footprint of 2,976 m2 plus associated roads, carpark, and service yard to the north and adjoining their existing facility.” 

“The proposed expansion shall house similar operations to the existing facility with the fabrication of modular service supplied systems. The proposed extension shall match the existing in line and level.”

Kirby intends to cover the roof of the development with solar panels. They are also looking to provide 109 car parking spaces on the 8.44 hectare site. 

“The application also seeks planning retention for an existing ancillary service yard and landscaped berms measuring 6540m2 located to the West and adjoining the original development,” the plan stated. 

Kirby 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 many varied sectors in including Industrial, Commercial and Renewables across the continent of Europe. 

“On-site construction activity is fraught with risk from health and safety, cost quality and schedule perspectives. To combat these risks, the industry is increasingly developing models by which large parts of the project can be prefabricated off-site and delivered as a single entity for installation of minimising the on-site activity.

This form of construction is particularly suited to mechanical and electrical elements where full modules may be constructed and fitted out in a controlled environment where quality and safety can be more easily managed."

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Kirby Group Engineering have, as previously noted, pursued this form of construction, and to consolidate their approach to same completed the development of an OSM (Offsite manufacturing Unit) at J17 Business Park in early 2024,” Kirby stated. 

The plans were approved by Laois County Council subject to 18 conditions on April 2.