US medical technology company Guidant Corporation is significantly expanding its Irish manufacturing facility in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. The plant currently employs over 1,000 people.
Guidant says it expects to create 500 new high quality manufacturing jobs over the next three years, with plans to add a further 500 new jobs as the operations develop. The investment is supported by IDA Ireland and recruitment will start next year.
Today's announcement is the largest number of jobs to be announced at one company so far this year.
The Guidant facility in Clonmel manufactures and distributes products for two of the company's four business units. The Clonmel unit is part of the worldwide Guidant Corporation formed in 1994.
Guidant designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of devices for use in vascular intervention, cardiac rhythm management and cardiac and vascular surgery.
The expansion in Clonmel is the result of the company entering the higher value, next generation of stents. These new products are coated with a drug and when the stent is inserted in the body the drug is locally administered in a controlled release method. The Clonmel plant will have responsibility for preparing the new products, bringing them from the R&D stage in the US to first time volume production.
'The investment represents an important endorsement of Ireland's on-going ability to attract large scale, technology driven projects,' commented Tanaiste Mary Harney at today's announcement in Clonmel.
'Securing this project for Ireland demonstrates yet again the country's continuing competitiveness and sends a very positive signal to other international companies that Ireland is a leading location for such investment,' she added.
She said that when fully completed, the development will mean that Guidant will double its local spending in the Irish economy from its current level of over €80m a year.
Guidant's corporate headquarters are in Indianapolis, with major operations in California, Minnesota, Texas, Washington, Puerto Rico and Ireland.
* Tanaiste Mary Harney also officially inaugurated the new Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at Cruiserath, Mulhuddart in Dublin. The new facility is a multi-functional, highly automated bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing operation providing the potential to run several pharmaceutical processes simultaneously.
There are over 140 people employed in Cruiserath and employment there is expected to grow to over 160 by the end of the year. The investment was announced in 1998 and was supported by IDA Ireland.
