Management buyout saves 40 jobs at Irish engineering company

Losses at its UK parent prompted Wind Prospect Ireland's management to buy and then rename the business in a move that one director said saved 40 jobs.

The renewable energy engineering company formally rebranded itself Ionic Consulting on Tuesday, confirming its separation from the Bristol-based Wind Prospect Group.

Operations director Brendan Heneghan said he and colleague Ken Boyne bought Ionic as its British parent was losing money as a result of a UK policy change that hit supports for renewable energy.

“The group shed a huge amount of jobs, so we went ahead and had a management buyout, that’s the reason for the rebranding,” he said.

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Wind Prospect Group lost £1.6 million in 2015 and began closing subsidiaries outside Britain last year.

Profitable

Management at the Irish subsidiary, which Mr Heneghan said was profitable, raised finance from Ulster Bank late last year to buy the company.

"The main thing as far as we are concerned is that we have saved 40 jobs," he said. Mr Heneghan added that the buyout also gave Ionic the scope to develop the business as it sees fit in Ireland and abroad.

Ionic is an engineering business specialising in deveoping renewable energy plants for clients that include State companies such as Coillte, Energia, Gaelectric and a number of other independent players.

It works mainly on wind farms, but Mr Heneghan said that recently it has been involved in developing solar power and energy storage projects.

The company has offices in Dublin nad Kerry and turnover of about €5 million a year. At the end of 2015, it had assets of €1 million.

While the Republic is due to change its renewable energy supports in 2019, Mr Heneghan noted that Ionic has lined up enough work for the next 12 to 18 months. “That is normally what most engineering companies would expect,” he said.