History (1998): Seagate Closing Clonmel, Ireland, HDD Facility

Seagate Technology has decided to close its HDD assembly plant in Clonmel, Republic of Ireland, citing overcapacity, pricing pressures and lower margins, a step that means the lay-off of 1,000 full-time and 300 part-time employees, even if Seagate will be offering relocation opportunities to a small number of them.

Only 4 HDD plants will remain in Europe: MKE/Quantum in Ireland, IBM in Hungary and an assembly plant at Xyratex in UK for IBM, Nomaï and Calluna drives, Calluna’s own facility in Scotland.

It’s a veritable disaster for the small Irish town, which only last June had celebrated the plant’s opening, with the local priest giving a benediction during the official inauguration.

In fact, the facility was founded in June 1995, previously a DEC plant.

Some interesting details about the closing may be found on Mackintosh Consultant’s web site. There we learned that the Clonmel operation, which has only recently reached full capacity with around 9 million drives a year, received almost £10 million in government grants last year, and local newspapers are reporting that authorities are now threatening to sue Seagate for the return of the money.

According to the same source, Seagate may rescind on its plan to establish a $225 million recording media manufacturing facility in Ringaskiddy, Ireland.

Similarly, plans to create 1,200 jobs in a new expansion at the Derry, Northern Ireland, plant have now been put on hold.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 120 on January 1998 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.