Hi-tech firm to locate in Knock with 69 new jobs

A new Irish high-technology company which aims to have sales of £136 million (€173 million) by the end of 2003 is to set up in Knock, Co Mayo, the Tanaiste Ms Harney said yesterday.

Xonen Technologies will produce glass-mastering technology for the compact and digital video-disc manufacturing industry. It hopes to create 69 jobs in the next two years.

The glass master is the original disc from which all future compact or digital video discs are made.

The company will also engage in extensive research and development.

The £1.8 million investment is supported by Enterprise Ireland and shareholders include the European venture capital company, 3i.

The venture was hailed as a significant development for the comparatively depressed Border Midlands and Western (BMW) Region, by the Tanaiste. Its location will also boost the new 60-acre Knock Business Park, which has been developed on a site adjacent to the airport cargo area from where foreign and local investment can take advantage of the BMW region's Objective One status for European aid.

Emphasising the rapid sales growth planned for Xonen Technologies, the Tanaiste said it would illustrate "the reality that our home grown technology companies can achieve global reach from any part of the country".

The chief executive of Xonen Technologies, Mr John Quinn, said positive feedback from prototype testing had assured the company that the product would exceed quality, speed and adaptability targets.

Sales at the end of this year would be just £1.6 million but would rise to £136 million by the end of 2003.

Mr Seamus Bree director of Enterprise Ireland's West region said the start-up was a "very important development for Knock, for Mayo and indeed for the entire region".

The organisation views the establishment of Xonen at Knock as a catalytic development which will encourage more high technology start-ups in the region.

While the State is committed to a policy of directing at least half of all new greenfield start-ups to the Border Midlands and Western region, IDA Ireland has acknowledged that foreign investors simply refused to locate outside the east coast in the past, citing infrastructural difficulties.

Recent concerns about the availability of gas and electricity supplies, communications and road links have been met with the BMW's operational programme. Under this programme an investment package of more then £3.2 billion is being spent between 2000 and 2006, on bringing the region up to the level of the rest of the State in infrastructural terms.