Reliance ‘powering forward' in its centenary year as revenues jump
Simon Coveney
was appointed as a non-executive director earlier this year, reported revenues of close to €20 million last year as domestic sales jumped 14 per cent.
Accounts filed recently for the Reliance Bearing and Gear Company, which celebrates a century in business this year, reveal turnover climbed by more than 11 per cent to just under €19.6 million in 2024.
Reliance distributes a range of mechanical, electrical and agricultural products, specialising in automation and robotics. The family-owned company is based in Little Island, Co Cork, but opened a 60,000sq ft facility on the eastern outskirts of Limerick city in 2019 and opened another facility in Antrim last year.
Operating profits at Reliance were up slightly to €958,033 in 2024 from €913,422 in 2023, according to the accounts.
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After-tax profits, meanwhile, dipped to €829,380 from more than €2.3 million in 2023. However, the 2023 figures were impacted by a nearly €1.2 million one-off exceptional item, related to the write-back of an asset revaluation in previous years.
Speaking to The Irish Times on Monday, Reliance chief executive Peter Creighton said the company is 'very in tune' with the wider Irish economy and consequently performed well last year.
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He said the company is 'powering forward' in its centenary year and will be opening up a facility in Dundalk, Co Louth, in 2025 on the 'automation and robotics side' of the business.
Mr Creighton said that 2025 has so far been a little bit flatter than last year. 'An awful lot of that has to do with what's happening, the uncertainty with tariffs and Trump and all that stuff,' he said.
Earlier this year, the company, which employed 50 people in 2024, announced that Mr Coveney would join Reliance's board as a non-executive director in his first private sector appointment after leaving politics.
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Simon Coveney joins Reliance board as non-executive director
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Mr Creighton said at the time that Mr Coveney's 'extensive experience and proven leadership' will be an important addition to the company.
The former Fine Gael TD for Cork South-Central, who held several senior cabinet positions during his career, was subsequently hired by EY Ireland as a consultant to its geopolitical strategy unit.
Reliance is a fourth-generation company that was founded in 1925 by Mr Creighton's great-grandfather, Horace Rhodes Kenworthy, as the Reliance Bearing and Gear Company.
Mr Creighton holds almost 50 per cent of the company's shares, according to its most recent annual return, while Horace and Laura Kenworthy hold a combined stake of just under 40 per cent.
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