Kirby Chooses Cape Town For Its First Office Outside Europe
Kirby Chooses Cape Town For Its First Office Outside Europe. Kirby Group Engineering has officially opened its new office in Cape Town, the company’s first base outside of Europe. Management welcomed Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, Micheál Martin T.D. to the office within the iconic Newlands Cricket Ground, to mark the occasion.
The Limerick-headquartered firm was established by brothers Tom and Michael Kirby in Thomondgate in 1964 and since then has grown to become a leading provider of mechanical and electrical engineering contracting services. Kirby now employs over 1400 staff across nine European countries and recorded a turnover of more than €454m in 2022.
30 people are expected to be working at the Cape Town office by the end of this year and the firm is expecting to grow that number further in 2024. Tánaiste Micheál Martin wished the company well with the project: “Having visited Kirby’s headquarters in 2021 for the announcement of another significant expansion plan, I’m delighted to be here today and see the continued growth of a strong Irish company – and indeed a milestone for the sector in which Kirby is operating. Establishing a presence in South Africa offers many benefits to a company such as Kirby and I’d like to wish you every success as you build further on a great Irish business story. Ireland’s business and trade links with South Africa are strong and growing, and Kirby is very much at the forefront of that growth.”
The management team at Kirby selected South Africa for the new base for several reasons, including the talented workforce – which has already seen many South African people join the Kirby team across Europe, the high standard of education within the graduate community, the lack of a language barrier and the fact that South Africa has a similar time zone to Ireland.
