Hardware Accessory Maker PCH International Acquires Design-Centric Lime Lab

You may have never heard of PCH International. But this Irish company makes packaging and accessories for some of the most iconic hardware products in the world. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink! They make cases, chargers, docks and earphones, among other accessories. They also create those whizz-bang unboxing experiences for many of the world’s best-known hardware makers, but they can’t disclose who their clients are.

Now the company just picked up Silicon Valley design consultancy Lime Lab to bolster its product development know-how. Lime Lab was co-founded by former Ideo director Andre Yousefi and former Design Within Reach director and Apple manager Kurt Dammermann. The price wasn’t disclosed.

“We were looking for high caliber people,” says PCH’s chief executive Liam Casey. “Andre and Kurt have great backgrounds, having worked at Apple and Astro Gaming. This will give us a great base to start with here in the Valley.”

PCH will turn it into a full R&D lab that has rapid photo printers, a soft goods lab and incubator rooms for startups. The company will open 15 new jobs in San Francisco by year-end and plans to double that by next year.

“They’ll be working on prototyping products and early-stage design and engineering,” Casey says.

PCH has raised at least $77 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest and more. Oh yeah, and PCH has 1,300 employees and disclosed that it had $410 million in revenue in 2010.