Computer Products, which employs 360 people at Youghal, Co Cork, has purchased the German-owned electronics company Elba for £21 million, in a move which is expected to significantly strengthen and expand its business. Announcing the acquisition yesterday, Computer Products managing director, Mr Gary Duffy, said it should boost the company's rapid growth in the European market and also create new opportunities for Irish engineers in the area of product development. "Further aggressive growth within the European-wide operations will substantially be driven out of cork"

Computer Products, a subsidiary of the Florida-based Computer Products corporation, has operated in Cork since 1981. It manufactures standard and custom-designed electronic power products and sub-systems for the telecommunications and computer networking industries.

The Irish manufacturing business accounted for £40 million of the US multinational's total £140 million turnover last year. The group, which is listed on the New York Nasdaq exchange, has contracts with 3Com, Siemens and Alcatel.

Its latest acquisition, Elba, manufactures a wide range of power products for communications applications. It employs 290 people and generates annual sales of around £19 million.

The Elba group includes the Dutch company, KRP, which specialises in providing for the power requirements of major telecommunications customers, such as Ericsson. Elba's also has operations in Germany and in the Czech Republic which produce applications used in Britain's advanced cable TV industry, supplying customers such as Kodak, Krone AG and Siemens. Following the acquisition, Computer Products will leverage its worldwide sales channels to grow the market for the combined group's products, while it will also be developing relationships between Elba and its manufacturing division.

Computer Products' Irish operation is trading strongly and reported a 22 per cent growth in sales last year while new orders in the current year are reported to be strong.