FRENCH family owned company Moulages Plastiques de l'Ouest (MPO) International plans to invest over £4 million to triple capacity at its new £6 million compact disc manufacturing plant in Blanchardstown. The company currently employs 60 people at the Blanchardstown plant which was officially opened yesterday.

MPO plans to add another 100 employees in Blanchardstown over the next three years, according to chief executive, Mr Loic de Poix. The company which was set up in 1957 in Averton in France has an annual turnover of $240 million and 2,500 employees throughout the world. It produces more than one million CDs a day.

The general manager of MPO Ireland, Mr Alban Pingeot, said the Irish plant produces 80,000 CD's per day and this will increase to 250,000 per day over the next two years. The Irish facility is ahead of target, he said. MPO invests 15 per cent of annual turnover, approximately £36 million a day, in new projects, plants and facilities, Mr de Poix said.

MPO Ireland specialises in the mastering, replication and packaging of CD ROM and CD audio Compact discs. The CD ROMS are supplied to software companies in Ireland and publishing and games software companies in Britain, while the CD audio discs are supplied to the audio markets in Ireland and Britain.

The Irish operation will begin manufacturing the advanced digital versatile disc (DVD) in 1998. MPO expects DVDs to replace standard compact discs on the market by the end of the century. DVDs have seven to 25 times the storage capacity of standard compact discs.

MPO decided to set up an operation in Ireland because of the availability of well educated employees and the highly developed information technology and electronics industry infrastructure, Mr de Poix said. MPO Ireland contributes an estimated £4 million to the Irish economy in wages and in goods and services purchased, he said.