Over 100 jobs for Tuam as ï¬Ârms expand
By TOM GILMORE TUAM has got a major jobs boost with the announcement that Valeo, the French multinational automotive system supplier, is to increase its workforce by 100 to approximately 550 and the building of extensions to its plant at Dunmore Road is expected to commence within a month. Meanwhile CPS Automation and Robotics Partner (Conveyors and Packaging) have increased their workforce, also on the Dunmore Road Industrial Estate, from 40 last year to 55 and another major employer, Transitions Optical, which has 182 employees, says that while it is not increasing staff numbers now, its sales have increased by four or five per cent in the past year. Valeo continues to be Tuam's big success story and its doubling of its research and development staff numbers here, from 100 to 200, means it is recruiting engineers from Ireland and abroad to fill the new posts. 'Tuam is our global centre for excellence for vision system design and auomotive camera manufacturing,' says Fergus Moyles, Product Line Director, Valeo Vision Systems. 'We are now hiring engineers, from degree up to PhD level, in all disciplines, electronic hardware design, embedded software development, system engineering, test and validation,' says Tralee native Fergus who came to Tuam with the former Connaught Electronics company in 1995. In July 2007 when the former Connaught Electronics plant was purchased by Valeo it employed 280 in Tuam but with the latest expansion the numbers will soar to approximately 550. The French firm has over 50 million employees worldwide, and while the company manufacture over 100 products for the automotive industry, Tuam is the international headquarters for the manufacture of camera systems for cars and other vehicles. This latest investment in Tuam will solidify the standing of the plant in the global development of cameras for cars which is a market with huge growth potential, especially in the USA where 15 million cars a year are sold. Sadly between 200 and 300 children under the age of five are also killed every year in accidents involving the reversing of cars and often with a parent reversing the car into the child. According to Fergus Moyles one of the new recommendations in legislation in the US is for every car to be fitted with one rear camera by 2014. 'Tuam is a global centre of excellence for the design and manufacture of our camera systems for cars. We are building on our existing camera platform that helps drivers in parking and low speed manoeuvring. We are currently designing a camera that gives an extra warning to the driver that there is a person at the rear of the vehicle and not just some other object, such as a flower pot, as they are reversing,' says Fergus. This extra warning may be by way of a louder alarm sound on the system which will enable the motorist to know that there is a pedestrian close by, as he or she is reversing. One of their most recently developed camera systems, used in BMW cars gives the driver an amazing all around image of the area surrounding the car on a large screen in the dashboard. This is a huge safety benefit to the driver. Valeo supply the premium European car companies, BMW, Jaguar, Landrover, VW, Audi, Volvo and they have launch plans for cameras for other leading car manufacturuers. The latest investment in Valeo's operations in Tuam is €17 million and the 100 high-skilled positions are being created over the next three years. 'At the moment we are number one in Europe and this investment in research and development will help us expand globally. The US is set to become a very important future market for us,' says Fergus Moyles. 'It is a very exciting time for us in our business, we have very strong growth potential with premium customers. The automotive camera market is set to quadruple by 2015 and we are positioning ourselves to grow accordingly,' he added. With the expansion work expected to start within a month at the Tuam plant it is hoped that it will be completed by mid-summer. Increasing Valeo's workforce to this number will also have a huge beneficial knock-on impact on many other businesses in the Tuam area with the firm also dealing with some outside contractors and employees doing business with shops, garages etc. Barry O'Leary, CEO of IDA, Ireland says this latest expansion is a very exciting development for Valeo in Tuam. 'The decision demonstrates the parent company's high regard for its Tuam operation, which I am sure, is in no small part due to the company's successful track record here. 'It's a great success story for high-value manufacturing in Ireland, which is the centre of innovation and development for such a highly-respected global automotive company,' he added. Meanwhile the General Manager of nearby CPS, Gerry McDonagh, says that the past seven months of the firm's financial year, which ends in May, have been the best to date. The company also has a branch in Tampa, Florida, which employs eight people. Managing Director John Byrne says their business has been steadily improving in recent months. 'We have been busy here with work all over Ireland, US, Brazil, Philippines and Thailand. 'Crews have been travelling to all these locations installing machines, within the automation and robotics fields, that we have manufactured for multi-national companies. It's good to have been in a position to increase our number of employees here in the past few months,' he added. This is good progress for the firm, which had seen its number of employees drop from a high of 58 in 2008 to 40 last year. 'Now with the number at 55 we are almost back to the high of three years ago,' says Gerry McDonagh. Many of their employees are highly skilled engineering graduates. While the firm still does a good core business in making assembly lines and allied products, they are now more into the higher end of the market, designing and manufacturing robots and other computerised machines for leading multi-national companies. 'We have a great workforce who are very dedicated as well as flexible and when the upturn in business came it was good to be able to back some of those that had to be let go in the past. 'The company is much stronger and better now and technically we are in on a higher level of designing and manufacturing more complex, labour saving devices, for our customers,' says Gerry McDonagh. The latest robots made by the Tuam firm can cut production time dramatically for many major multi-nationals. CPS does a lot of business with Transitions Optical as well as Boston Scientific, Hewlet Packard, Medtronic, Hollester and Proctor and Gamble as well as many others. 'We have built up brilliant business relationships with our customers over the years and while we have expanded our plant here from 26,000 sq feet to 50,000 sq feet as well as opening the branch in Florida, we are also negotiating to open an office in Thailand to serve the Far East,' added Gerry. Transitions Optical which is the second biggest employer on the Dunmore Road Industrial Estate has over 180 employees and while this number has remained the same for some time the firm's business has been increasing. 'We have witnessed an increase of between four and five per cent in the past year with most of our products for the export market,' says Kevin Minton, Plant Director. In late 2009 the photochromic lens manufacturing firm, which has its headquarters in Florida, purchased the factory and warehouse at Dunmore Road which it had been leasing from Greencore for the previous 15 years. Some operations which were being carried out at its Asian plants have since been relocated to Tuam.