The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Computer, Electrical Electronic And Optical Products Manufacture Of Computer, Electronic And Optical Products 26 - Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products
New offshoring locations
Malaysia
900 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
29 October 2007
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
31 December 2008
Description
Seagate, an American multi-national group that operates in the information technology sector, is to close its site at Limavady with the loss of 900 jobs. The plant, which produces components for hard disc drives, is due to be closed by the end of 2008 and production at the site will be moved to Malaysia. The firm has operated the Limavady site since the end of the 1990s, and since 2001 has received 12 million GBP in grants from Invest Northern Ireland and its predecessor IDB. Plant manager William O’Kane stated: 'This is no way due to the employees. We have a fantastically skilled and fantastically motivated and fantastically inventive workforce which would be an asset to any future employers. However, even with those assets and the improvements we have made in productivity and technology, we have had to bow to the inevitable cost pressures that exist in the Far East.' Northern Ireland Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Nigel Dodds said the closure was disappointing for the workforce, the region and the wider Northern Irish economy. He stated: '[It] is a direct result of significantly lower wage costs in Asian competitors, foreign exchange and shipping costs which have created a competitive cost gap of some 15 million GBP per year,' Mr. Dodds also said that senior officials from Invest Northern Ireland were working with the company and the Department of Employment and Learning on a joint approach to retrain and reskill the affected staff.
Sources
29 October 2007: BBC Website
Citation
Eurofound (2007), Seagate, Offshoring/Delocalisation in United Kingdom, factsheet number 65985, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65985.
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