Germany’s largest independent office furniture company, Spielmanns Officehouse, has announced it is entering the Irish market with a 50% acquisition of Dublin-based company DesignFlow, owned by Robert Trench.

This type of merger is the first of its kind in the interiors’ sector and was undertaken completely off market.

The new firm will now be called DesignFlow Spielmanns and will be owned equally between Robert Trench and Spielmanns’ founder Dietmar Spielmann.

Robert Trench, Managing Director, of Designflow Spielmann, said: "This is a fantastic deal for such a young company like Designflow. It allows us to target much larger projects, at a time when many of our competitors are scaling back their operations.

"With this funding in place, and the weight of the Speilmanns Officehouse group supporting us, we can now operate as a much bigger player in the market and tender for jobs that previously we would have been considered too small for.

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"We are honoured to merge with such a reputable company and with their increased network we can now also offer far more product lines to our clients, of which many will be exclusive."

The deal has been described as a 'coup' for Designflow, which is celebrating only its fifth year in business.

The firm will now join an international network that includes nine offices in Germany and six internationally including: Tripoli, Moscow, Muscat, Abhu Dhabi and Dubai.

It will also allow Design Flow to triple its portfolio of suppliers and increase the size of individual projects they undertake, as they can now meet the pre-qualification criteria for major tenders.

Dietmar Spielman, Chairman of Designflow Spielmann Officehouse, said: "We have been carefully expanding our network across Europe for a number of years and are keen to increase our reach into Ireland.

"Our expansion strategy has always been to find companies with a similar design outlook, quality and vision as Spielmanns and with Designflow we have finally found the ideal match."

Spielmanns already have a successful track record in Dublin having undertaken the fit out of Depfa Bank’s IFSC headquarters. It was reportedly the success of this project that led them to seek an Irish partner.

Spielmanns decided to headhunt Design Flow in 2006 following recommendations from their European-based suppliers, and after seeing the similarities of their business models.

Design Flow will now have the support of entire Speilmanns network and will form part of the design teams on their international projects.

(PR)