Treacy Announces £8.26 Million Investment129 New Jobs for five Galway Companies

Mr. Noel Treacy T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, has today (Monday 20th November, 2000) announced details of a £8.26 million investment, supported by Enterprise Ireland, by five companies in the Galway region. "This will result in the creation of 129 jobs for our county," said Minister Treacy, in Galway, today.

Making the announcement, Minister Treacy said that he is delighted to announce details of these expansions for this county. "Enterprise Ireland and the Government place great emphasis on company expansions in the regions. I am very pleased that these five companies are going from strength to strength and continue to make a substantial contribution to our economy generally and particularly here in County Galway".

The largest project is C&F Tooling in Cashla, Athenry, who are manufacturers of large sophisticated press tools and specialised sheet metal components primarily to a number of industry sectors including automotive, computer, telecommunications and refrigeration. C&F strengths lie in both tool design and tool manufacture and where required the production of high and low volume sheet metal parts.

C&F’s investment amounts to a total of £4.6m with an additional 55 jobs bringing their total employment to 133 people. Part of this investment will go toward the development of a new ‘soft-tooling’ facility catering for customer needs in prototyping and medium-low volume production. This coupled to a new fully automatic powder paint plant and in-house cable and wire harnessing facility affords C&F the possibility to offer their customer a total solution programme i.e. from concept to finished product. They recently participated in a trade mission to Copenhagen organised by Enterprise Ireland in an effort to develop its exports to Scandinavia.

Recognising the need for on-going growth and improved efficiencies, the company has just completed a 2,000 sq. ft. expansion to its premises on Weir Road. The acquisition and installation of additional manufacturing equipment has enhanced the company’s manufacturing capabilities enabling them to target new markets and improve production systems.

Welcoming Minister Treacy’s announcements, Mr Seamus Bree, Director Enterprise Ireland West Region, said "a key feature of today’s announcements are the number of expansions of enterprises who are strengthening their capability through investment in technology, people, product development and market development. Enterprise Ireland will continue to encourage companies such as these to focus on growth through the development of new products and markets".

Minister Treacy has today sincerely thanked Enterprise Ireland for their great work in the Western Region. He has also heartily congratulated and thanked the Directors, Management and staffs of the five companies involved on their commitment to quality systems and products, to job creation and to their continued investment in the economic growth of County Galway and the Western Region in general.

C & F manufacture specialised sheet metal components primarily for large multinational companies. The company supplies products to a number of industry sectors including automotive, computers, telecommunications, and refrigeration. Total investment of £4.6m.

Lockwood Veneers Ltd. was established in 1999 to manufacture wood veneered MDF sheets including more specialised exotic woods. This is used for furniture making, office furniture and shopfitting and many other applications as a replacement for solid wood. Employment in the company now stands at 12 and is planned to grow to 22 people within the next year.

Lockwood Veneers Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Fitzgerald Group of companies that includes Michael Fitzgerald Ltd, the long established building contractor and Lockwood Manufacturing Ltd. specialising in joinery fittings for hotels, bars, restaurants and banks. Based for many years in Clarinbridge the group moved to Raheen, Gort in 1999. Overall the group employ in excess of 110 people.

Celtrak Ltd. was incorporated in March 2000 as a software engineering company specialising in vehicle tracking systems. It is an offshoot of a project developed in Connaught Electronics (CEL). CEL employs 200 people in Tuam. CEL traditionally had designed and manufactured its own proprietary range of vehicle security products such as car alarms and immobilisers for the ‘After’ market (i.e. retrofitted) which it sold through a large network of distributors. In recent years CEL has changed both its manufacturing and marketing strategies and has successfully entered the market for supplying keyless entry systems, engine immobilisers and centrally fitted locking systems.

The principle behind Celtrak’s product range is to provide a wireless link to transfer information between a base monitoring unit and a mobile unit. The latter can be fitted in a vehicle or a premises. Using this technology a fleet of vehicles can be tracked using GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) and the GSM network to pinpoint the exact location of each vehicle and transmit this back to the fleet manager via the base PC.

Autowatch is a vehicle monitoring system focussed on affording security to vehicles and their drivers. In addition the monitoring company can also listen in to the vehicle cab or open up a two-way voice channel once an alarm has been activated. Celink provides remote control and monitoring via GSM. General applications include being able to unlock/lock your house or car door, listen into your house or check stock levels of vending machines from your mobile phone.

Larkins purpose built factory is divided into three distinct work areas to accommodate manufacturing, finishing and quality control. The company has just completed a 2,000 sq. ft. extension to the premises to facilitate the introduction of the waste management product range.

Since its formation in 1993 Galway Irish Crystal has experienced a three-fold growth in sales. In order to remain internationally competitive and service anticipated further growth in turnover the company is embarking upon a major capital expenditure programme over the next three years at an estimated cost of over £2m. The principal items of capital expenditure will be the building of additional space and the purchase of two new cutting machines.

The giftware market is highly competitive and all companies manufacturing giftware are in competition with Galway for shelf space, retailers’ support and end consumer’ purchasing power. This investment is projected to deliver a major increase in turnover and 18 additional jobs. A competitive manufacturing base has helped the company retain its market share and this automation and expansion CompanyLocationJobsInvestmentCeltrakTuam+20£944kLarkin Engineering Ltd.Tuam+14£174k Lockwood VeneersGort+22£544kC & F ToolingAthenry+55£4.6m Galway Irish CrystalGalway+18£2mTotalCounty Galway+129£8.26m<