Prodieco acquire US firm Gemel Precision Tooling

TALLAGHT-based precision engineering firm Prodieco Limited has acquired US firm Gemel Precision Tooling.

The acquisition of one of its main competitors is expected to further consolidate Prodieco’s global leadership position in a highly specialised part of the wider pharma sector.

Prodieco – short for Progressive Die Company – was founded as a press tooling company in Cookstown in 1962.

For over 60 years, the company has developed engineering solutions for clients with 98 per cent of their products and services exported worldwide.

The company has grown to become the largest independent producer of blister tooling format change parts globally — with 280 employees and two high-tech manufacturing sites in Tallaght.

Pennsylvania-based Gemel is a leading provider of bespoke precision engineering solutions and parts to the life sciences sector in America that previously competed with the Irish firm in the blister tooling market.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Prodieco CEO Lisa Ainsworth said that the US firm had over 40 years’ industry experience and had a strong manufacturing infrastructure, which would extend the Irish firm’s manufacturing capabilities in the Americas.

She said that the “strategically compelling combination” was an important step in Prodieco’s strategy to build a manufacturing and engineering centre of excellence in the US and would enable it to deliver market leading customer service and delivery times to the North American market.

It would also provide a strategic location to further support the Central and South American markets.