Workwear firm Portwest buys another Australian business & plans new Irish HQ

Portwest, headquartered in Mayo, Ireland, has bought a second unnamed workwear company in Australia (legal obligations mean the firm cannot yet be disclosed).

Prime Mover Workwear was acquired by Portwest this year and both purchases combined will push Portwest's Australia turnover north of €20m pa.

Portwest's 2016 turnover reached €149m, with a net profit of €25m.

Portwest CEO, Harry Hughes said, “We are happy with this performance. The company is working to a 5-year plan with a growth rate of 30% per year and, although all growth to date has been organic, acquisitions will play a more important part of future expansion.

"Our sights are firmly fixed on our new markets of US and Australia and we have an outstanding pipeline of new designs and innovations to drive this growth.”

€10 million HQ in the works

The Portwest boss also announced a new corporate HQ will be built in Westport, at a cost of over €10m, to allow for further growth in staff numbers.

Other recent developments include opening a new warehouse in Panama to service the Central and South American markets. Four of its nine warehouses have been expanded this year. Manufacturing takes place in Bangladesh, where there are 1,600 employees, and the newly opened Myanmar factory.

The announcement was made at Enterprise Ireland's business event in Melbourne, attended by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins (pictured). There's more information on the Enterprise Ireland site.