Irish workers to contribute to Dell's Polish venture

Computer maker Dell has announced plans to invest €200 million in Poland and build a new factory in the central European state, in a move to be spearheaded by the company's Limerick site.

The company expects the IT sector in central Europe's former communist states to expand by 14 per cent annually in the years ahead and it said the pool of well-educated IT workers in the region's biggest state had made it the most attractive option.

"The main reason for ... the location of the plant is its vicinity to a large client base, the chance to develop our activity on central European markets and access to a well-educated Polish workforce," Dell's European regional chief Paul Bell said in a statement.

The world's top PC maker is a market leader in Ireland and employs 4,300 people in Limerick, from where they serve markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Initial fears that a move into eastern Europe could jeopardise those jobs have been assuaged somewhat after Dell confirmed today that the vice-president of manufacturing in Limerick, Sean Corkery, and an additional 60 employees will oversee the Polish venture.

"Limerick will continue to operate as our manufacturing headquarters and we see both sides complimenting each other," a Dell spokesperson told ireland.comthis afternoon, while adding that Limerick is currently recruiting 140 people for IT operations.

"Sean Corkery...will be heading up the new site and about 60 experienced people from the team here will be helping him set up the new site," she added. "Obviously as we recruit people in Poland they will be coming over to train in Ireland"

Dell are planning on the site being operational by Autumn 2007.

Polish officials say the new factory could be worth around 10,000 new jobs to Lodz, Poland's second largest city and an unemployment blackspot.

The plant itself, which will make laptops and servers, will initially employ 1,000 people, which could expand to around 3,000, officials said.

"This is an almost unimaginably important investment for Lodz, because it creates real jobs," said Teresa Bialecka-Krawczyk, director of labour development for the city. "For each job in the factory, two to three new jobs will appear with suppliers or other businesses."

At 16 per cent, Poland has the EU's highest jobless rate and has fallen short of its neighbours in attracting foreign investment

The country's economy churns out 40 per cent of the total gross domestic product of the 10 mostly ex-communist states who joined the European Union in 2004, making it the region's key market and a launchpad for investment further east.

Dell also employs just 100 people in marketing, sales and customer support in Warsaw.