History (1992): StorageTek to Establish Plant in Toulouse, France

Storage Technology Corp. (Louisville, CO) has chosen to open a manufacturing and research center in Basso Combo, the industrial area of Toulouse, in the southern part of France.

Initial plan shows 1,501,000 square foot complex. Its inauguration is scheduled for the end of 92 or beginning of 1993 and it will be operational in 1994 with a staff that should reach 470 people in the next four years.

Employees will be recruited locally and only about 10 Americans from Colorado will be appointed there.

A team of 100 to 150 people will be working in R&D with Bull, one of its main customers, and principally a manufacturing plant for future Iceberg RAIDs, libraries and magnetic cartridge drives will be located there.

According to a spokeswoman from StorageTek France, Europe now counts for 45% of the sales of the company. This new plant represents a $30 million investment and $400 to $600 million sales are forecasted for 1998.

Cardiff in Scotland, Dublin in Ireland, and Frankfurt in Germany were also on the list, but it’s Toulouse that finally won, on account of the French government’s arguments and the financial support of regional and local authorities. StorageTek is nevertheless the first computer manufacturer to establish in this town.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠57, published on October 1992.

Note: The plant, following the acquisition of StorageTek by Sun, was closed in July 2007.