September 9, 2025
Ireland Emerges as Acuity's Latest Digital Frontier
CEO Neil Ashe signals office may grow into company’s European headquarters
It wasn’t the office opening that stood out. It was who showed up.
When Acuity’s CEO Neil Ashe arrived in Cork to cut the ribbon on the company’s new Global Digital Centre of Excellence, he brought an unusually large entourage for a single overseas office opening: senior executives, comms staff, and the unmistakable suggestion that this site, in this city, meant something more than just another office location pin on the global map.
Acuity, North America’s largest maker of lighting products, doesn’t typically make headlines in Europe. But the Cork announcement is the latest in a slow, deliberate string of moves that, when taken together, begin to sketch a larger strategy — one in which Acuity stops being a lighting company with international outposts and starts becoming something else entirely: an industrial technology firm with a global footprint.
Acuity already maintains a European presence stretching back decades. Holophane Lighting has operated in England since they acquired the company in the late ’90s. Distech Controls works out of Brignais, France. And eldoLED — a key supplier of LED drivers — has operations in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Recently acquired QSC operates in Germany, Austria and England. But those businesses are largely physical: components, fixtures, hardware. Cork signals a pivot.
Cork as the Digital Frontier
“This is where we build the future,” Ashe told The Irish Examiner. The company evaluated global locations before settling on Ireland’s second-largest city, ultimately drawn by a combination of talent density, university ties, and what Ashe called a “longstanding and productive relationship with Ireland's Industrial Development Authority.” He didn’t mention the low 12.5% corporate tax rate that can help companies achieve single-digit effective tax rates, but he didn’t have to.
The new Centre will focus exclusively on the digital side of Acuity’s business — what the company calls Intelligent Spaces. Distech, Atrius and related technologies. Think software-defined building management, AI-driven energy controls, and cyber-secure cloud platforms, not fixtures and drivers. Over the next three years, Acuity plans to hire more than 100 employees in Cork, all in technical roles: Software Engineers, Data Scientists, DevOps, QA, Security Architects. There’s not a single product assembler on the list.
Minister @jackfchambers today attended Acuity Ireland's office opening in Penrose Dock, Cork. This is the opening of the company's first office space in Ireland, announcing 100 jobs.
— Department of Public Expenditure (@IRLDeptPER) September 8, 2025
The Tech Case for Cork
If that sounds like a tech company, that’s the point.
Cork is emerging as a quieter, more cost-effective cousin to Dublin’s hyper-saturated tech sector. With operational costs 40–60% lower than the capital and access to more than 105,000 skilled professionals, it’s become a draw for multinationals looking to plant roots without burning cash. According to Silicon Republic, the city is now home to more than 2,200 startups and 55,000 tech employees.
But it’s not all green fields and tax breaks. Ireland is facing an energy bottleneck of its own making. Data centers — fueled by AI adoption — now consume more than 22% of the country’s electricity. And global infrastructure strains are complicating cross-border supply chains. When The Irish Examiner pressed Ashe on economic volatility, including tariffs enacted under U.S. President Donald Trump, he was blunt, if not a bit evasive: “The world is a dynamic place and we do not have the luxury of standing still.”
Why Software, Not Fixtures
It’s that pragmatism that may explain why Acuity is leading with software in Europe instead of fixtures. The company has consistently ruled out the complexity of getting its interior architectural lighting products compliant across multiple EU standards, not to mention the logistical challenges posed by wildly varying ceiling dimensions, voltage, current and regional building codes.
By contrast, selling cloud-based building controls — and the digital interfaces that drive them — is cleaner. Less hardware, fewer borders, higher margins. And by anchoring this push in a country that combines tech fluency with English-speaking legal clarity, Acuity gives itself a runway for longer-term growth.
The Future: European HQ?
Whether that leads to a full European headquarters in Cork remains to be seen. Ashe left the door open, telling The Irish Examiner the Centre might one day expand to become the company's European headquarters. For now, it’s a beachhead. One that fits neatly into Acuity’s pattern of methodical, margin-focused expansion.
Not a revolution. But definitely a signal.
