PM Group to ride the AI and weight loss innovation wave

Despite global uncertainty the Irish firm sees plenty of work on both side of the Atlantic

PM Group CEO Anthony O'Rourke, chairman Brendan Jennings, chief financial officer Rosita Fennell. File picture 

The rapid spread of AI and the required data centres to service the technology have resulted in increased services for Irish firms lsuch as the PM Group, who expect to grow further in 2025.

The Dublin-headquartered international project delivery company reported financial results for 2024 this week, reporting a 2.7% rise in operating profits to €34.8m on the back of 5% growth in service fee revenues and sustained demand for its services, with all operating regions delivering profits in 2024. 

The company said this strong demand has continued for the year.

The company has been involved in major projects in Ireland for decades, largely focused on the life sciences sector, building out pharmaceutical and food plants. Today, it carries out large volumes of work internationally with a presence in the UK, mainland Europe, the US, India, and Asia.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, CEO Anthony O'Rourke said the life sciences sector continues to grow. "The life science market in Ireland has been very, very busy, and internationally it's been very busy. Another big part of our business is the data centre market, and a big investment in the data centres in mainland Europe in particular," he said.

Much of the reason for this increased business has been innovation by companies in technology and new medicines.

You take data centres with AI. There's a huge spend on data centres over the coming years. I'd say it's never been as high, and there will be a wave of it for the next five years or more.

The PM Group said data centre work is growing, particularly in mainland Europe and the US, but Mr O'Rourke said that work has not increased in Ireland for well-documented reasons, namely the grid infrastructure and planning.

"Over the years, we've done data centre work in Ireland, but the investment in data centres in Ireland has really fallen off for all the obvious reasons, and it has pivoted. If you look at Europe and where the spend now is in data centres, it is in Western Europe, in the Nordics and starting to go down to Spain and Italy. And the UK is starting to see increased investment. Unfortunately, it's not in Ireland at this point," he said.

Innovation is also behind the growth in the life sciences sector.

"There are a lot of new technologies, new products from companies, with regard to medicines. So that drives investment. Then you've got weight loss drugs and huge investments by those companies.

The US Government under Donald Trump has created great uncertainty globally through the imposition of tariffs and demands on US firms to repatriate manufacturing back to the US. Ireland has been one of the world's greatest beneficiaries of foreign direct investment by US companies, particularly within the pharma sector, and there are fears that over time, manufacturing could return in significant numbers. 

The PM Group's Irish operations account for 63% of its business. But, Mr O'Rouke said from their perspective, the level of work in the US has been rising significantly in recent years. The PM Group has operated there for the past 15 years. Last year, they opened a new office in North Carolina alongside their existing hub in Philadelphia.

There has been underinvestment in the US for quite a number of years, and even before the current government was in place in the US, there was already a trend of new investments happening. And I think things like covid and various crises have made it clear that there was a need to have pharma supply chain resilience, so that investment was already happening.

"With regard to Ireland, there has been so much investment in Ireland over the last six to seven years, it's been phenomenal, the wave of investment. We have been expecting Ireland to taper off for a number of years and every time we thought we've seen the end of the wave, it just kind of kept going."

"But I think we're at a point now where there's been so much investment in Ireland that clients need to get those new facilities up and running and get the production out through the door. I think you won't see as many large-scale investments in Ireland in the medium term. There will continue to be a spend, but it will be on upgrading existing, older facilities. You'll see a wave of investment in things like sustainability and companies looking to decarbonise and improve their carbon footprint."

"You will see more projects, but more smaller-scale projects and less of the new greenfield big announcements that you might have seen in the past."

For the company itself, it remains in growth mode. Much of this is organic, but they have acquired other firms when suitable. In 2023, they acquired Cork firm Milestone, which specialised in automation. Mr O'Rourke said the bedding in of Milestone has worked well.

"It's a great bolt-on. And automation is another area that we're looking to grow. We see great growth opportunities there, in Ireland and outside of Ireland."