16 February 2021
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Cork Business News
EPS Group – headquartered in Mallow, Co Cork – has further expanded its presence in the UK with the acquisition of Ferrier Pumps Limited, a multi-faceted engineering company with 40 years experience and pedigree across Scotland and Northern England.
Established by Brian Ferrier in 1981 and employing 47 between offices and workshops in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, Ferrier Pumps has been serving Scotland’s utility, industrial, commercial, residential and agricultural markets as one of the country’s foremost pumping specialists.
EPS Group’s Managing Director Patrick Buckley (audio above) says Ferrier Pumps will bring their product offering; service and repair and project delivery experience to the ever-expanding group. “With a combined 92 years of experience between the two companies, we look forward to further strengthening our working relationship with the enormously experienced Ferrier Pumps team in the months and years ahead”, says Patrick.
With an expanding footprint in the UK with offices in Alton, Hampshire; Thetford, Norfolk and Lichfield, Staffordshire in recent years, EPS is no stranger to Scotland, having applied the company’s extensive off-site construction/DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly) expertise and experience to deliver a wastewater treatment plant in Inverurie and water treatment plant upgrade works in Tullich, Oban in recent years in partnership with ESD, one of Scottish Water’s delivery partners.
EPS Group is a wet infrastructure specialist operating across the Republic of Ireland and the UK and employing over 500 people. EPS is one of Europe’s largest, privately owned Design-Build-Operate (DBO) partner for the delivery and operation of water and wastewater assets.
Contracts Director at Ferrier Pumps, PJ McFeeley says, “We have been working with EPS for a number of years on various infrastructure projects in Scotland and we quickly realised that there was a natural fit between both organisations”.
“Over the last 40 years, Ferrier Pumps has cultivated an excellent reputation for having a dedicated and long serving team, with a strong focus on delivering for our customers across Scotland’s utility, industrial and commercial markets including manufacturing; transport; food and beverage; leisure; marine; off-shore oil & gas; agriculture; fishing and aquaculture, not to mention our extensive experience in providing pump related building services products to schools, hotels, hospitals and commercial office complexes”, says PJ.
Similarly, EPS works across the utility; industrial; commercial; residential and agricultural sectors with customers as varied as water and power companies; those in the dairy, meat processing, bakery, brewing & distilling industries; pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, microelectronic, data centre and defence spaces to commercial including building services, leisure, office/retail outlets and SMEs to residential and agricultural clients.EPS Group’s five main business areas of design, build and construction services; offsite/DfMA manufacturing & assembly; outsourced asset management & operations; service and repair of assets and equipment and technical product sales and distribution mean that it is one of the few genuine end-to-end service providers in the global water sector.
Taking a whole life cycle approach to water and wastewater treatment has played a huge part
in EPS’ growth and success, with extensive asset management; facility management; reactive
and planned repairs and maintenance across all the sectors the company serves, with over
200 in-field technicians and operators maintaining over 300 assets directly & 1000s indirectly
in the company’s care across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland under various partnership
models for utility, industrial and commercial clients.
Managing Director Patrick Buckley says, “We offer water and wastewater pumping and
treatment services to markets in Ireland and the UK while we also export globally for one-off
or strategic projects, which have included locations in the Philippines, Grenada, North
America, Antarctica, Africa and the Middle East as well as various data centre projects across
Northern Europe over the past decade”.
“We firmly believe that Ferrier Pumps will prosper further as part of EPS Group, leveraging
our experience in the digital engineering, DfMA and asset management spaces as well as
gaining access to our multiple technology & product partners”, says Patrick. “We are also
looking forward to combining our efforts to strengthen our relationship with, and offering to,
our customers and clients across Scotland and Northern England and in particular, Scottish
Water and their delivery partners in the next investment cycle to 2027 as well as their Net Zero
emissions efforts & targets”.
Patrick Buckley Managing Director of EPS in Mallow, Co Cork
Pic Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision