Project managers PM Group are planning a massive graduate hiring drive as profits rise
The company now employs more than 2,000 people worldwide.
DUBLIN-HEADQUARTERED project management firm PM Group plans to recruit another 500 graduates over the next five years as its operating profits topped €10 million.
The employee-owned company, which handles project and construction management work across Europe, the US and Asia, reported a 21% increase in operating profit compared to 2014.
PM Group said the figure hit €10.9 million for 2015 on the back of a 3% rise in underlying fee revenues.
However the firm’s overall turnover dropped nearly 20% year-on-year to €297 million for the latest 12-month period due to lower ‘pass-through’ revenue from construction jobs.
PM Group said it plans to hire 500 graduates, half from Ireland, by 2020, roughly doubling its annual intake as it takes on more engineers and other construction-related professionals.
The company currently has around 2,200 staff working both in the Republic and its overseas offices, with more than 1,000 based in local operations.
Construction at Poolbeg, Dublin
Big ambition
The firm’s chairman, Dan Flinter, said a highlight of last year was the buyout of the near-quarter share in the company that was still privately held, which meant PM Group was now entirely owned by staff.
He added that it “was a mark of our ambition” that the company was recruiting such a significant number of new staff.
The 43-year-old company, which is based in Tallaght, has recently been involved in building dairy giant Glanbia’s €185 million facility in Waterford and the Poolbeg waste-to-energy plant in Dublin.
Internationally, its work has included a lens-manufacturing factory in Malaysia and a wood-fibre mill in Poland, among other projects.
The firm was founded by two engineers, Jim Walsh and Brian Kearney, whose first major project was the Kinsale Head gas field operation for Marathon Oil in the 1970s.
