Limerick: Takumi to double capacity with expanded site

Takumi Precision Engineering is set to double its footprint in Limerick city following the acquisition of a site adjacent to its existing facility on Raheen Business Park.

The deal with IDA Ireland would “future-proof” the Irish company, supporting ambitious plans for growth in the years ahead, Gerry Reynolds, Takumi’s owner and managing director, said.

“We are 22 years on our current site and there is nothing worse for a business than to be landlocked and not have the space to expand,” Reynolds said.

“The purchase of this one-hectare site gives us the scope to double our capacity and employee numbers, sowing the seeds for the next 20 years of development.”

In tandem with its expansion on the ground, Takumi is planning for the future in other ways too, with a new brand refresh and plans to relaunch its website takumiprecision.com.

A native of Limerick, Reynolds established Takumi in 1998 after returning home following a nine-year spell living and working in Dublin and overseas.

While in Japan, he worked for six years for Fujitsu in Fukushima, where he met his wife, before returning to work for the ICT giant’s engineering operation in Dublin for a further three years?

“I acquired a skillset for making precision-machined components in Japan, where parts were produced on high-tech CNC [computer numerical control] machines. I matured that skill set in Dublin and then rolled it out in Limerick,” Reynolds said.

“I always had the desire to come home. I feel more comfortable among my own rather than in the ‘great anonymity’ of Dublin. In Limerick, rents are also more manageable.

“There is more manufacturing here and a greater quality of life. The infrastructure is very good and there is strong integration with local universities. I’ve always tapped into both University of Limerick and Limerick Institute of Technology for talent,” he said.

Takumi Precision Engineering designs and makes medical, aerospace and general engineering devices, and associated products, for multinationals in Ireland and overseas

The company’s services range from design consultancy and prototyping to complete or part-manufacture, inspection and validation.

“I am very proud that Takumi is a creator rather than a recruiter. We ‘grow our own’, rather than headhunt. We develop people and they stay with us,” Reynolds said.

“We have excellent retention, with a current headcount of 85 people. Seventy to 80 per cent of them are in their first job, which is probably unique in our industry.”

While Covid saw Takumi’s turnover drop by about 30 per cent last year, Reynolds said the company was now in a stable recovery phase, and expected to return to growth within 12 months.

Its ongoing involvement in aircraft manufacturing was, he added, unusual for the Irish market.

“It’s something we’ve seen great growth in. It has suffered during Covid, but aircraft are still being built and the order pipeline extends to ten years,” he said.

“There is still an insatiable desire for new aircraft, even in developing economies, where the emergence of a new middle class, keen to fly overseas for holidays, has matured.

“Right now, we’re helping to build both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. It is a global industry, and we’re glad to be part of it.”

Medical device development was strongly rooted in Limerick, particularly the manufacturing of orthopaedic and cardiovascular components, Reynolds said.

Takumi provides precision-machining services to numerous medical device companies, including Medtronic, Abbott, Stryker, DePuy and Zimmer.

“Going abroad to shows over the years before Covid, it has been amazing to see how highly thought of Ireland is in the area of medical devices – and we are at the heart of it,” Reynolds said.