Mallaghan has reported a record year for 2025, with turnover up 22 per cent to £148m and pre-tax profit up almost 50 per cent to £19m, giving aviation equipment buyers evidence of a supplier that has recovered from the pandemic and is adding jobs as global airline and caterer orders grow.

The Edendork-based group added more than 40 jobs last year, taking its workforce to 513, more than 40 per cent above its previous pre-pandemic high of 365 in 2019, after shedding more than 100 jobs across 2020 and 2021.

Last year Mallaghan joined a three-company supply deal worth about £12m for Emirates Flight Catering, including 53 aviation loading trucks, and has also unveiled an electric self-propelled toilet service and a next-generation catering truck for a Dutch client.

Mallaghan, family-owned by Ronan and Niall Mallaghan and founded as a civil engineering firm by their father Terry in the 1960s, designs and manufactures airport ground support equipment for airlines and ground handlers, and is based in Co Tyrone, with a US factory in Georgia.

Emirates Flight Catering is a subsidiary of the Dubai government-owned Emirates Group and provides catering for Emirates Airline and all airlines based at Dubai International.

Niall Mallaghan described the company as being at a pivotal moment, entering a new chapter of innovation centred on electric and future-ready engineering solutions, when it launched a major recruitment campaign earlier this year.

The results reflect fleet renewal programmes at airlines and caterers returning to pre-pandemic scale, with electrified ground equipment emerging as a growth line alongside conventional diesel units.

The shift towards electric is backed by market data, with the global ground support equipment market forecast to grow from $9.6bn in 2025 to $15.9bn by 2033 and Menzies Aviation already at 25 per cent electric ground equipment globally.

For the sector, a Northern Ireland manufacturer joining a Dubai fleet programme with two other suppliers shows how regional engineers are embedded in multinational supply chains.

The wider signal for the sector is that family-owned manufacturers are pairing record earnings with electric product development and recruitment aimed at electric and sustainable engineering.

Source: The Irish News / Congruence Market Insights / Emirates Flight Catering