FLI buys two Britain-based companies

FLI Environmental, the Waterford-based environmental services company has purchased two Britain-based companies from Bord na Móna for €5 million.

The acquisition of Brightwater Engineering and Brightwater Products and Services will give FLI a significant presence in the municipal and local authority waste-water treatment industry in Ireland and Britain. The acquisition will also allow FLI to develop its existing business in industrial waste-water treatment.

“Brightwater, which employs 60 people at Lechworth and Bedford, north of London, has 30 years experience in the municipal waste-water treatment sector in Britain and is a leading supplier of biological activated flooded filtration technology (BAFF).

“The company has provided over 80% of Britain’s installed plants,” said FLI Environmental founder and managing director Micheal Flynn.

“Ireland’s municipal waste-water treatment infrastructure will have an investment of €4 billion in the next few years and FLI, with a very strong in-house engineering capability, is well placed to become a major player in this sector,” he added.

FLI currently employs 200 people and has an annual turnover of €43m. It claims to be on target to increase its turnover to €100m within the next three years, mainly through organic growth.

It is no stranger to making acquisitions, however. In 2003, it acquired the French company Solmax Geosynthetique SAS and two years later added the British-based contaminated land remediation company, Vertase, to its portfolio.