Aqua Design Limited

The background

Aqua Design, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Killorglin, is a turnkey manufacturer of bespoke mild and stainless steel products, supplying one-off and bulk engineered solutions to Ireland’s manufacturing and utilities sectors, including clean-room and pharmaceutical-grade components.

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The challenge

Following a prolonged period of stable turnover, Aqua Design experienced a plateau in sales growth while gross margins and net profitability came under increasing pressure from rising costs, overhead inflation, and intensifying competition. The leadership team recognised the need to rebalance commercial performance, operational efficiency, and long-term resilience, while preparing the business for its next phase of development.

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The approach

Team BDS was engaged in 2023 to work with the leadership team to define a clear strategic reset focused on margin protection, targeted growth, and operational capability. A structured three-year plan was developed encompassing market positioning, product and process innovation, financial targets, and leadership ownership. This was supported by a business scoreboard, defined implementation governance, and an Industry 5.0 framework to guide the development of data-driven processes and modern management tools. Team BDS has since worked alongside the business to support disciplined execution of the strategy across all functional areas.

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The outcome

As part of the strategy, Team BDS supported the development of a structured succession plan and the strengthening of the senior leadership team. These strategic initiatives have delivered a sustained improvement in performance, increasing gross margins with a corresponding uplift in net earnings all within or above target. The business has also commenced its growth pathway, achieving strong progress toward a targeted double digit increase in volume with sales increasing by a double-digit amount during Year 1 of the three-year strategy.

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Today, Team BDS continues to support Aqua Design across strategic deployment, capital investment planning, and the delivery of a major production-facility extension scheduled to come on stream in Year 2. This positions the business to scale with confidence while maintaining financial discipline and operational control.