An Irish company has established a successful electronic business specialising in fire detection devices.
After twenty one years in the Shannon Industrial Estate EI reveal the secret to their success. Personnel manager John Doyle describes the company as the forerunner of many successful electronics companies in Ireland.
1963 was the Lemass era of increasing employment and foreign investment. EI, a fully owned subsidiary of the US General Electric Corporation, chose Shannon as its location attracted by the low cost of labour.
John Doyle believes the electronics industry requires change to be successful and the research and development department affords EI such success.
The company is proud of its modern technology and also of its research and development department, something lacking in many of the new arrivals on the Irish electronics scene.
Products made by EI in the Shannon factory include television electron guns and smoke detector devices. Over 11 million smoke detectors, which were developed in Ireland, have been sold worldwide in the past nine years.
During the boom of the early seventies, EI employed a thousand workers. While their employment numbers are now half that, they see their future in investment in technology.
You must invest in the most modern up to date equipment.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 26 September 1984. The reporter is Michael Walsh.
