VOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN TOWN AS QUANTUM CREATES MORE JOBS

May 1994

A major vote of confidence in Dundalk comes from Quantum who announce a 74,000sqft expansion at their plant in Finnabair Industrial Park, creating 124 new jobs in four years to bring the workforce to 250.

In turning the first sod for the development, Minister for Enterprise and Employment Ruairí Quinn explains Quantum has agreed a £5.7m proposal with the IDA to enable this project and that almost half of the extra posts have already been created.

‘IDA Ireland has been pursuing this for almost two years and the decision by Quantum Corporation to locate its European engineering analysis function, and distribution centre in Dundalk is a huge vote of confidence in the staff here and will ensure that Ireland remains Quantum’s primary operational site in Europe,’ the minister continues.

Quantum customises hard disk drives shipped from MKE Corporation (Japan), the nearby IKEI, and its parent company in California.

The customisation or configuration process will differ with each customer and with each type of drive, and can include attaching bracketry, labels, cables, and testing on computers for functionality.

It does business with companies such as Apple in Cork, Dell, IBM, Digital, Intel, Compaq, HP, Siemens Nixdorf and Olivetti.

The company currently employs 187 people, well ahead of the scheduled 120 at this juncture.

Minister Quinn reveals that one of the reasons for the new development is that many of Quantum’s customers are already in Ireland.

He says the business with Apple is $100 million.

In Dundalk since July 1991 when setting up in a temporary premises on Coe’s Road, it then moved to the current 36,000sqft facility in Finnabair.

‘ This major new investment is driven by Quantum’s requirement to meet growing European demand for its products and to improve service to the end user disk drive market,’ Minister Quinn says.

‘ This investment was won against international competition and reenforces Ireland’s comprehensive support base for electronics investment.’

He points out that in the final analysis the track record of the company’s Dundalk operation and its high calibre workforce swayed the decision to proceed with the expansion.

The minister references that many of the country’s best-known businesses are in this part of Co. Louth and refers to Sim Stribel with 300 employees six years ago and now with more than 500 on the payroll, with the prospect of more to come, to make Stribel the largest employer in Dundalk.

‘As a national role model, much of what we seek to achieve for this country in terms of a balanced industrial profile, playing to our strengths, is represented in this region, more so in business parks such as the one here in Dundalk.’

Quantum Managing Director Declan Shalvey pays tribute to the workers, stating that expectations have been exceeded.

About one-third of the workforce possess third level qualifications, most coming from Dundalk RTC.