No 6: Designer Group

Founded in 1992, Designer Group is now a leading innovative and sustainable provider of mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions. The business provides trusted MEP expertise for clients on an international scale, across Ireland, the UK, Europe, Africa and North America, with a client base spread over 14 sectors, including data centres and life sciences.

Total Turnover:

€220M (Estimated)

ROI Turnover:

€120M

International Turnover:

€100M

As a trusted and reliable partner of choice, Designer Group has delivered challenging projects across the data centre, life sciences, industrial, manufacturing, commercial, sustainability, infrastructure and energy sectors. Designer Group’s outstanding people, with the quality of its delivery and personable approach, have built its longstanding reputation in the industry.

Investing in people

Designer Group employs an exceptional and engaged team of more than 1,000 people. Underpinning its people approach are its core values of ‘Safe’, ‘Trust’, ‘Respect’, ‘Challenge’, and ‘Deliver’. These values set the tone for everything it delivers for clients and people. Designer Group promotes a strong culture of learning and development, most recently launching its group-wide ‘Performance Excellence’ appraisal programme, designed to support employee progression and development. It is recruiting and developing apprentices, graduate engineers and surveyors to support its growth plans while continuing to invest in its award-winning DG Training Academy. Further proof of Designer Group’s successful investment in its people is the achievement of being the first contractor ever to be awarded the NISO Supreme Safety Award two years running, as well as the large number of repeat business opportunities it has secured over the years, recognition from clients for the quality of the Designer Group team.

Engineering the future

Designer Group is committed to reaching net zero carbon by 2035 and has a dedicated team supporting the delivery of its sustainability strategy. The business has been involved in a number of cutting-edge renewable energy projects, supporting a cleaner energy future through the design and building of complex infrastructure, including completing the construction of three large biomass facilities in Africa. These plants now operate 24/7, 365 days a year, delivering significant reductions for its client’s carbon footprint.

Designer Group is always seeking to push the boundaries in delivering sustainable, innovative environments. It utilises the latest building information modelling (BIM) technology, and it works from the assumption that all of its services can be prefabricated

Delivering new opportunities

Designer Group’s latest international milestone projects include expansion into the Nordics and North America, adding to its global presence. It is currently delivering the second and third phases of a mission-critical 36MW data centre facility in Norway and is close to the completion of another data centre project in Sweden.

The group has also recently commenced a significant biomass project and supporting infrastructure in Mexico.

In the UK, its growth plans are well underway to substantially increase work in the aviation sector, and the completion of the One Nine Elms landmark towers in late 2023 will reaffirm its reputation for delivering the tallest residential towers in Europe, using cuttingedge prefabrication technology for leaner, greener and safer operations.

The group is poised for further growth in the life sciences and industrial sectors, having recently completed work on a number of large pharmaceutical and related clean-room projects.

Designer Group vision

Designer Group has a compelling vision, and with its recently approved growth strategy being implemented at pace by the leadership team, it has an exceptionally strong, committed order book with existing and new clients.

Looking ahead, Paul Nicholls, ROI & International Managing Director, Designer Group, says: “I am delighted to be leading Designer Group at this exciting time. We have a dynamic growth strategy and a superb team, which is grounded by our company values, focused every day on delivering for our clients.”