500 ADDITIONAL JOBS ANNOUNCED AS XEROX COMMENCE PLANNING
FIVE MANUFACTURING FACILITIES WILL BE BUILT ACROSS 70 ACRES IN £120 MILLION TECHNOLOGY PARK OCTOBER 1998
AS Xerox lodges a planning application for their proposed £120 million technology park, it emerges the company will be providing an estimated 2,000 jobs, five-hundred more than the original prediction.
Xerox assembles a land parcel of 104 acres for what will be the largest single construction project in Dundalk’s history.
In the first phase, five manufacturing facilities will be built on 70 acres. Hardware, electronics, two components facilities and a colour toner plant will cover a floor area of 58,500sq m combined.
An 18-month construction phase is scheduled to start next January, during which up to 1,000 will be employed on the building.
Xerox is undertaking an extensive landscaping programme valued at £1 million, planting more than 20,000 semi-mature trees.
‘Xerox wants to create a landmark site that will make a positive statement about the company and Dundalk town. Frankly, this site was the natural choice,’ says Aidan Donnelly, General Manager, Xerox (Europe) Limited.
The company will in future treat Europe as a single integrated market, without reference to country borders. Manufacturing activity will be based in Dundalk, Mitcheldean (UK) and Venray (Netherlands).
Details of Xerox’s plans for the Haggardstown site are outlined to representatives from business, state, semi-state and local authorities in Dundalk Institute of Technology and follows a meeting with residents.
The hardware facility is for the assem- bly of document processing equipment and will have a floor area of 14,500sq m and a maximum height of 11m. It will be ready for production in November, 1999.
The electronics facility for the automatic and manual assembly of components onto printed circuit boards and other business functions will have a floor area of 9,000sq m and a maximum height of 12m. It will be ready for production in April, 2000.
Two components facilities are for the manufacture of components for Xerox equipment with floor areas of 13,000sq m and 8,500sq m, both with maximum heights of 11m. They will be ready in March and September, 2000, respectively.
The last major facility in the first phase is a colour toner plant with a floor area of 13,500sq m and maximum height of 23m, ready by January, 2000.
‘ The Xerox Technology Park will be a clean and environmentally friendly site finished to the highest standards,’ Mr Donnelly adds.
‘Standards that people would expect of a flagship development for one of the world’s foremost companies. Xerox Corporation takes pride in its long-standing dedication to environmental excellence and this is reflected in the key environmental issues relating to the proposed Dundalk campus.’
There will be no significant air emissions of consequence, there will be no odour emissions and the site will not have any detrimental effect on local water and energy supplies, Xerox states.
‘Xerox Corporation is committed to the protection of the environment and the health and safety of its employees, customers and neighbours,’ a statement points out.