Suir Engineering spearheads UK expansion with Scottish acquisition

Suir’s acquisition of UK mechanical and electrical engineering firm Taylor & Fraser provides a platform for UK expansion.

Irish-headquartered engineering business Suir Engineering has acquired a Scottish engineering business called Taylor & Fraser for an undisclosed sum.

Taylor & Fraser, headquartered in Paisley, has been operating as a family-run business for 114 years, providing mechanical and electrical engineering and construction services across a wide range public and private businesses and organisations.

“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”

Suir Engineering was founded by Noel Doyle in Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny, and as well as operations in Dublin and Waterford, has operations across Europe, including in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

After securing its first international project in 1986, it evolved into other industries including pharmaceuticals as well as data centres.

Pan-European engineering vision

Suir Engineering reported 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.  

An estimated €180m is predicted to come from data entre projects.

“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. “

Taylor & Fraser will become a Suir Engineering company but will continue to operate under its existing name. Suir said there will be no impact on the Scottish firm’s 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.”

Main image at top: John Kelly, CEO, Suir Engineering

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John Kennedy
Award-winning ThinkBusiness.ie editor John Kennedy is one of Ireland's most experienced business and technology journalists.

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