ENGINEERING GROUP C&F is poised to announce a series of deals that will give the Athenry-based company a major boost in 2010, including a new contract that will double its China business and a key tie-up with a telecoms provider for its wind turbine venture.
“We will shortly announce a deal which will double the current business in China, and are also in an advanced stage of negotiations with existing customers. 2010 will be a growth year for existing customers and we expect four major new clients in the IT business,” founder and chief executive John Flaherty said in an interview in the group’s factory in Dongguan, southern China, which makes server racks for IBM.
Agreements have also been signed for the group’s fledgling wind turbine business. The deals involve a global partnership with a telecoms installer.
C&F started life 20 years ago as a toolmaking company but has expanded over the years into a global contract manufacturer and Mr Flaherty is keen to expand its remit into green technology.
The group has spent €2.6 million researching and developing the wind energy products, using its own cash reserves.
“We are in a position to capture market share globally, due to our presence in Europe and in Asia and with our forthcoming factory in the US,” said Mr Flaherty, who was named Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year for 2008. “We have the customer base to justify an immediate startup in the US, we’re not just going in green.”
The group’s China operations supplying Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), such as IBM, continue to expand and Mr Flaherty said moving to China was “the best move C&F ever made”.
In September last year CF bought JPB Prometall, a Frankfurt-based automotive manufacturing company of exterior trim components and a competitor of the Westmeath-based Iralco. The companies have been amalgamated into C&F Automotive and make components for some of Europe’s best-known carmakers.
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