Management at the recruitment and HR outsourcing division of the Parc Group has bought out the business from the group in a deal worth around €10 million.
Brian Flood, chief executive of Parc HR Services (PHRS), and fellow director Marian Noone have purchased the division after five months of talks with the group's board.
Parc Group was split in two in 2004 - Parc Aviation, which provides staff to the aviation and aerospace sectors, and PHRS, which has operations in Ireland and the UK.
The recruitment and HR outsourcing division has an annual turnover of almost €60 million, and accounts for about 25 per cent of group operating profits.
Mr Flood and Ms Noone will hold equal shares in the business following the buyout.
They made their offer to buy the division after the group had received approaches from outside parties expressing interest in buying the business. PHRS employs 85 of the 140 people in the Parc Group.
Ms Noone is chief executive of the outsourcing and healthcare business within PHRS. She and Mr Flood have been working with the Parc Group since 1985.
PHRS will continue to trade under the Parc brand for a limited period following the transaction, but it will eventually develop its own identity. It has offices in Dublin, London, Glasgow and Havant, Hampshire, in the south of England. The division employs 35 staff in Ireland and 50 in the UK.
Mr Flood said they would continue to expand the company, particularly in the area of healthcare, with a focus on growing the business in the Middle East where it already has a small operation in Bahrain.
The company's resource management division handles recruitment processes for major companies in Britain. It has assigned about 500 people with clients. It also provides staff to the engineering, construction, technology, accountancy and finance sectors in Ireland and the UK.
Parc Group chief executive Peter Keenan said: "The sale of Parc HR Services is a natural evolution following the restructuring of the group's activities in early 2004, when we established Parc Aviation and PHRS as separate businesses, each with its own business plans, management resources and headquarters.
"Parc Group will now focus exclusively on its sector of origin, worldwide aviation, and we will develop further the range, geographic scope and scale of our aviation services."
Parc Aviation provides staff to airlines and aircraft maintenance and leasing companies. It operates in 35 countries, and has placed 750 pilots and aircraft engineers with 50 clients. The aviation division has been growing into India, China and the Middle East over the last year.
The Parc Group had a turnover of €118.6 million in the year to the end of March 2006, the latest year for which accounts are publicly available.
Parc Aviation had a turnover of €66.2 million, and Parc HR Services €52.4 million that year. Before exceptionals, operating profit rose 15 per cent to €4.1 million.
