News & Events

Minister Mitchell O’Connor highlights value of strong local IT sector to support foreign direct investment companies

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor T.D. today (Monday) joined forces with leading Irish owned IT services and networking company, Arkphire, to highlight the importance of having a strong local IT sector to support the growing numbers of foreign direct investment companies, now locating in Ireland.  

Arkphire’s success to date has been built largely on the company’s ability to service the IT needs of multinational enterprises, providing a range of services from IT procurement through to infrastructure build and managed services.  The 2015 IDA Annual Report cited the introduction of thirteen new foreign direct investment companies into the country.  Arkphire directly supports nine FDI companies, including such high profile customers as Indeed, Lidl and UBER. This business has enabled Arkphire to achieve annual revenues of over €55 million and employing 71 people to date. The company is gearing for further growth in supporting the multinational sector in Ireland and has ambitious plans to achieve 50 per cent growth in revenue and profitability by the end of 2017 with a further 35 people to be recruited over the next two years.          

Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor highlighted the importance that local companies such as Arkphire play in securing direct investment and supporting job creation: “Arkphire is a great example of the positive knock on effect that follows when foreign direct investment is announced. New jobs emerging from FDI organisations are in turn leading to new jobs in local indigenous companies – which remains the largest growth area in the Irish jobs market. Local specialist IT services companies, such as Arkphire, play a very positive role in enhancing Ireland’s reputation as an effective place to do business, offering world class solutions in terms of skills, products and services to support incoming enterprises”.

Paschal Naylor, Managing Director at Arkphire commented on the importance of foreign direct investment companies locating in Ireland: “It’s a true two-way relationship.  An organisation planning to locate in Ireland has to be assured that there are local resources skilled and ready to support them as they establish and grow their operations in Ireland. IDA Ireland has been a main contributor in Arkphire’s success to date and we are very grateful for all the FDI companies that have located in Ireland as they continue to grow our business.’’

He added: “We have also started offering our service even before the organisation locates in Ireland, thanks to our investment in a US office, and our excellent reputation for getting things done efficiently.’’

Arkphire recently completed the acquisition of networking solution provider, Bootstrap, that now positions both companies to be able to offer enterprises the full spectrum of IT services.  

ENDS

About Arkphire:

Arkphire is a leading Irish owned IT Consulting, Services, Infrastructure and Networking  company with operations in Dublin and London. Its turnover in the 12 months to end June 2016 was over €50 million.

Dating back to 1976, the business specialises in transforming how IT delivers long-term value for its clients.

Arkphire has three interconnected services and solutions business divisions:

-          -IT Product Procurement Services

-          -IT Networking

-          -IT Infrastructure Solutions

-          -IT Managed Services

For more than 40 years Arkphire has been designing, managing and advising on business-led technology projects for customers ranging from large multinationals, leading Irish organisations and public sector agencies within a wide range of industries including telecommunications, finance, healthcare and energy.

During 2016, Arkphire acquired networking solution provider and Cisco Gold Partner, Bootstrap, owned by Pauline and Martin White.   The combined resources of the two companies will now provide a full service IT offering for enterprises. 

For further information, please contact Frans Van Cauwelaert or Kristin Kenny, Wilson Hartnell

Tel: 01 669 0030 or 087 9476743 (Frans) or 085 841 0814 (Kristin)

E: frans.vancauwelaert@ogilvy.com or kristin.kenny@ogilvy.com