Eakin Group has just concluded a major deal to purchase Cliffe Medical.

Cliffe Medical owns Respond Plus based in Larne, the licensed dispensing appliance contractor (DAC) for Northern Ireland employing 11 staff who dispense stoma products directly to patients as well as providing a nurse advisory service. Cliffe Medical also owns OstoMART, which provides a similar service from its three centres in England. The deal will increase Eakin’s UK workforce by an additional 55 people to 280.

The family owned Eakin Group is one of Northern Ireland’s most successful healthcare businesses with its products being sold in 40 countries around the world providing annual revenues in excess of £75m. In 2007, Eakin Group acquired Pelican Healthcare in Cardiff and earlier this year the company invested £12m extending its Comber manufacturing facility to over 100, 000 sq ft.

Eakin Group UK Managing Director Paul Eakin said: “This is a hugely important strategic acquisition for the Eakin Group. In Northern Ireland, Respond Plus provides us with a unique opportunity to extend our relationship with the stoma community. We know this community very well but we now have the opportunity to expand our level of service, including nursing care support. Eakin has a huge international following around the world yet we are relatively unknown to the public in Northern Ireland so this is the perfect opportunity for us to make that connection.”

Mr Eakin added: “As well as the important Northern Ireland aspect to this acquisition, Cliffe Medical also provides us with a platform to extend our business development in other parts of the UK and beyond. OstoMART is a highly respected business with three service centres in Nottingham, Peterborough and Dorset. These strategic additions to the Eakin Group consolidates our ongoing investment and expansion programme which started in 2007 with our purchase of Pelican Healthcare. Although the OstoMART and Respond Plus businesses will operate independently of Pelican Healthcare, all three companies will work together as part of the Eakin Group to provide the best possible level of service to all geographic regions of the UK.

Eakin Group Director, Mr Jeremy Eakin also added “Northern Ireland is rapidly acquiring a global reputation for excellence in healthcare innovation and at Eakin Group we are delighted to be playing our part in helping to forge and reinforce that reputation around the world.”

The Eakin Group was originally founded by pharmacist Tom Eakin in 1974. He owned a pharmacy in Dundonald and began encountering ostomy patients on a daily basis who were experiencing problems with disposable ostomy pouches, specifically skin irritation and leakage. He formed TG Eakin Ltd and began designing and manufacturing Cohesive Seals to address these problems and since then, with his two sons Paul and Jeremy, has rapidly expanded its product base and markets around the world.