The Tánaiste and Minister for Education, Mary Coughlan TD, last month announced that Zeus, the US headquartered medical device company, is investing €10m in a 40,000sq ft expansion and creating 75 new manufacturing jobs over three years.

The expansion of its facility at the IDA Business and Technology Park, Letterkenny, Co Donegal is supported by IDA Ireland.

Zeus Industrial Products (Zeus), headquartered in Orangeburg, South Carolina, is a leading developer and manufacturer of precision polymer extrusions, including specialist fluropolymer tubing solutions, for a range of industries. Established in 1966, the company is privately held by the original founder Frank P Tourville and employs 1,200 people worldwide.

“The decision by Zeus to expand its operation in Letterkenny is testament to the availability of a highly-skilled workforce in the north west region, the performance of its existing staff and the ease of doing business in Ireland,” stated Coughlan at the announcement. “On behalf of the Government, I look forward to providing continued support to Zeus as its Irish operation grows and develops.”

Séamus Hughes, general manager of Zeus in Ireland, said: “Since establishing our operation in 2005, our experience of doing business in Ireland has been a positive one. Due to the growth in our customer base in Europe, we are expanding our operation in Letterkenny to meet the demand for our medical and industrial speciality tubing product. We are very excited about our expansion plans and I look forward to finding the right calibre of staff to ensure our continued success here.

“In addition, I would like to thank the executive management team of Zeus Inc for their continued support of the Irish operation and their confidence in the Irish employees. On behalf of the Irish employees, I am very proud to be part of a very progressive organisation.

“Finally, I would like to express our appreciation for the work and contribution made by IDA Ireland during this process and supported by the Irish Government.”

IDA Ireland CEO, Barry O’Leary also welcomed the announcement. “Zeus is an important manufacturer in the medical device industry in Ireland and offers a key sub supply role in a very specialised area,” he said.

 “This expansion was won for Ireland in the face of stiff international competition from other global locations, proving that Ireland has an increasingly competitive and pro-business environment to offer investors with a strong manufacturing focus.”

The Irish Times reports that online sports betting firm Betfair has announced plans to create up to 100 jobs at a new office in Dublin. Betfair said it intends to open a new data centre and relocate some of its UK customer operations teams to Ireland early next year. The company has already commenced a recruitment process to fill the posts. It said existing staff in the UK would also have the option to relocate to Dublin, but it was not yet clear exactly how many people would be interested in taking up this option.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith T.D. today (3rd November 2010) announced that global insurance and reinsurance provider, Global Indemnity plc, is to establish an IT development operation in Cavan through its subsidiary, Global Indemnity Services Ltd., creating 30 high value jobs over the next 5 years.  Global Indemnity Services will employ a wide range of technical staff to provide IT development for the Company’s policy administration and finance functions.  The investment is supported by IDA Ireland.

The release follows Global Indemnity’s recent announcement that it had completed its redomestication to Ireland and anticipated opening an operational office in addition to its administrative headquarters in Ireland by the end of the year, with the initial focus being IT development. 

Minister Smith, welcoming the announcement, said “Today’s announcement is excellent news for the North East region and Cavan in particular.  Global Indemnity is an established global insurer and reinsurer and is a welcome addition to the area.  The Company’s decision to locate in Cavan is an endorsement of the attractiveness of the area to global investors.  The availability of local talent, its position within the North East region and its proximity to Dublin with the recent opening of the new M3 motorway are all major factors contributing to the attractiveness of the area.  I would like to thank Global Indemnity for offering such excellent employment opportunities to the people of Cavan, and can assure the Company that it has my full support into the future as it develops its operation here.”

Larry Frakes, President and Chief Executive Officer of Global Indemnity plc said: “Ireland is an excellent locale for our headquarters with a supportive environment and infrastructure from which to conduct an international business.  Our decision to locate IT development operations in Cavan is based on the availability of a highly skilled local workforce, excellent IT infrastructure, and the access Ireland provides us to EU markets. Global Indemnity Services will play a major role in strengthening our European presence.  We look forward to developing the operation with the support of IDA Ireland.”

Barry O’Leary CEO, IDA Ireland added: “Ireland has a strong reputation as a leading location for global insurance companies, with over 15,000 people employed in the industry here.  Global Indemnity is an excellent addition to this cluster.  IDA Ireland looks forward to working closely with the company as it establishes its operation here.”
 

About Global Indemnity plc  and Its Subsidiaries
Global Indemnity plc (NASDAQ: GBLI), through its several direct and indirect wholly owned subsidiary insurance and reinsurance companies, provides both admitted and nonadmitted specialty property and casualty insurance coverages in the United States, as well as reinsurance throughout the world.  Global Indemnity plc’s five principal divisions include:
United States Based Insurance Operations:

Penn-America, which includes property and general liability products for small commercial businesses distributed through a select network of wholesale general agents with specific binding authority;

United National, which includes property, general liability, and professional lines products distributed through program administrators with specific binding authority;

Diamond State, which includes property, general liability, and professional lines products distributed through wholesale brokers and program administrators with specific binding authority;

CompGlobal, which provides workers’ compensation insurance.

International Reinsurance Operations:

Wind River Reinsurance Company, Ltd., a Bermuda based treaty and facultative reinsurer of excess and surplus lines and specialty property and casualty insurance.

For more information, visit the Global Indemnity plc website at http://www.globalindemnity.ie  
Forward-Looking Information
Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made under “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The types of risks and uncertainties which may affect the Company are set forth in its periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

21st October 2010, Dublin: Europe’s leader in ‘Content on Demand’, GoAdv has marked its rebrand to Populis (www.populis.com) with the opening of its new European headquarters in Dublin today.  The company, which employs over 45 people in Ireland, is also expanding its Irish employee base at the office in Barrow Street, Dublin.

Populis, which has been operating in Ireland since November 2006, delivers up to the minute ‘content on demand’ to web users.  This content from news to guides is crowdsourced from a team of expert collaborators and published through its network of wholly owned and operated websites including Excite Europe, Better Deals, Blogsfere and Nanopublishing.  The organisation has over 18 million unique monthly users across 500 wholly owned and operated websites in 8 languages.

Populis is expanding its Irish operation, with initially additional roles in Content Management, Search Engine Marketing and Administration, in one of Europe’s technology growth hot spots. The European headquarters already counts over 8 nationalities and 10 languages across its team of Search Engine Marketing and online content experts.

Commenting on the rebrand and expansion, John Slyne, Managing Director Ireland and Group CFO, Populis said “We are delighted to celebrate our rebrand to Populis with new offices in Dublin. Content on Demand has experienced phenomenal growth and we needed a strategic base to help us achieve our expansion goals.  This further commitment to Ireland reflects the country’s growing leadership position in pan European digital communications.”

Welcoming the expansion and opening of the new headquarters Barry O’Leary, CEO IDA  Ireland said “As the only major player in the sector to produce content in 8 languages, Populis is a welcome addition to Ireland’s vibrant digital media portfolio and its rapid growth here is testament to the local management and highly skilled and talented staff working in the Dublin HQ.”

“Populis is an excellent example of the type of high growth technology company which IDA targeted under its Horizon 2020 strategy. The addition of Populis to our rapidly expanding digital media sector reinforces Ireland’s growing reputation as the internet Capital of Europe” he added.

About Content on Demand.
Populis takes a scientific approach to content generation with a database of over 16 million key words and a proprietary algorithm to define the hottest content topics of web users.  Once identified matching news, features, guides and comment content is then crowdsourced from a network of professional writers, video producers, expert contributors and editors.  This content is then published across a network of wholly owned media brands and optimized for search traffic via search marketing, social tools and community engagement.  This content is then monitised through partnerships with tier 1 search/contextual providers (e.g. Google, Yahoo) and direct deals (e.g. Expedia, lastminute and eBay).

About Populis
Populis is one of Europe’s fastest growing digital media companies (GP Bullhound Media Momentum 2010) and European leader in the production of multilingual content on demand. Created in 2004 the Group crowdsources, distributes and monetizes over 20,000 items of compelling content in 8 languages per month for a vibrant network of 500 fully owned and operated websites including Excite Europe, Better Deals and Nanopublishing. The media properties generate over 18 million unique monthly users (Source: Comscore September 2010).

Populis is a pan-European company with a team of over 125 working across offices in Ireland and Italy, active in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, US, Australia, Russia and Brazil.

The company has experienced double digit revenue growth every year for the past 5 years, culminating in multiple award wins (Media Momentum, Red Herring 100) and the enviable position as European leader in content on demand, GoAdv’s rebrand to Populis will increase its visibility with an easily recognizable name and identity, while strengthening its space in an increasingly competitive market sector.

D&B, the world’s leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, has increased its recruitment drive in Ireland. D&B Business Information Solutions Limited (DBIS) has already employed 40 people in highly skilled roles in Sandyford, Co. Dublin following the establishment of a strategic business centre earlier this year. Today’s announcement means the company will create 150 jobs in Dublin by 2011 rather than the original 100 previously announced. Positions currently being recruited by the company include researchers, software developers, analysts and support staff.

This follows the company’s announcement that it would undertake a two-year strategic technology investment program to strengthen its commercial data and rebuild its technology platforms to meet the emerging needs of customers.  The project is being supported by Government through IDA Ireland.

Minister O’Keeffe said the extra jobs showed investor confidence in Ireland’s capacity to recover was strong because the Government is pursuing the right policies for a return to economic growth in the near term.  “D&B’s decision to ramp up its recruitment drive shows confidence to hire and to invest is returning to the economy and our high-calibre graduates are exceeding the expectations of global market leaders.”

“I was very encouraged by a recent meeting I held with met senior members of the DBIS team and today’s announcement aligns well with Government policy to position Ireland as the top European location for innovation-led knowledge-intensive global business services.  The company’s decision to locate a strategic centre in Dublin and recruit for more positions endorses our global standing in the international services sector and prospects for economic recovery”, said Minister O’Keeffe.

Walter S. Hauck III, Senior Vice President, Technology and Chief Information Officer said “DBIS is using leading edge technologies that will allow a new D&B suite of products to be delivered to customers quickly and efficiently.  This project is of major significance and commercial importance to D&B and forms an integral part of the future strategy of the corporation. The Dublin centre will focus on and deliver the next evolution of our technology strategy, delivering maximum value to customers around the world.”

IDA Ireland CEO, Barry O’Leary said “In recent years Ireland has been building a growing and diversified business services cluster particularly in the operations, analytics and technology areas.  IDA’s Horizon 2020 highlighted the growth in business services as a key area of opportunity for Ireland.  D&B is a world leader in business information solutions and its recent decision to locate a strategically important part of its global operations in Ireland which is now significantly larger than originally envisaged, is very welcome indeed.”

About Dun & Bradstreet® (D&B)

Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) is the world’s leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, enabling companies to Decide with Confidence® for 169 years. D&B’s global commercial database contains more than 165 million business records. The database is enhanced by D&B’s proprietary DUNSRight® Quality Process, which provides our customers with quality business information. This quality information is the foundation of our global solutions that customers rely on to make critical business decisions.

D&B provides solution sets that meet a diverse set of customer needs globally. Customers use D&B Risk Management SolutionsTM to mitigate credit and supplier risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability; D&B Sales & Marketing SolutionsTM to increase revenue from new and existing customers; and D&B Internet SolutionsTM to convert prospects into clients faster by enabling business professionals to research companies, executives and industries. For more information, please visit www.dnb.com.

For information on recruitment opportunities please contact
Premier Group, Tel: +353 (0) 1 665 2222 or Email: dnb@premierjobs.ie

With the establishment of a new operations centre in Dublin Google is to create 200 jobs here in Ireland immediately.

The new Dublin-based operations centre will be focused on the search engine giant’s location-based products including Google Local and Google Maps.

These new jobs will bring the number of people employed in Dublin by Google to a total of 1700.

“Dublin is rapidly becoming the multilingual internet capital of Europe and Google is proud to be leading the charge on this and further increasing our presence here,” said David Martin, director, Geo Operations for Google in Europe.

Martin said that the Dublin operations centre will take care of its location-based services for the pan-European market and will be developed as a centre of excellence.

“Google Maps displays so much more than the geography of a place, and now incorporates rich data from thousands of sources in different languages from across the world and also includes local business listings.  This operations centre will help to manage these data sources to give Google Maps users even more local information than before,” he added.

Martin explained that the decision to open a European centre for its location-based service was due in part to the fact that increasing proliferation of smartphones and uptake of Google’s own Android operating system meant that more and more people are using Google Maps, its free Sat Nav service for Android, Street View and so on, and the aim is to provide information that is as accurate and up to date as possible.

“The operations centre will be based in Eastpoint Business Park and plans to be fully operational this year. Google is working with local staffing partners CPL and Manpower to recruit and potential employees will be expected to graduates with one or two years experience in their field and strong IT skills,” said Paul Sweetman, director of ICT Ireland.

“This investment by Google highlights the strength of Ireland’s ICT sector, proving Ireland continues to be the location of choice for major multinational corporations.

“The ICT sector is leading Ireland’s Smart Economy with seven of the top ten global ICT companies having a major presence here. In addition to the 200 jobs announced by Google today, over 2,000 new jobs in the ICT multinational sector have been announced since January 2010. In 2009, the indigenous software sector grew by 6pc in export value.”

At least 35 new jobs are to be created in the next two weeks in Mallow in Cork, with the opening of a new southern transfer centre by Parcel Link UK.

The firm, which provides parcel delivery services, is expected to create a further ten jobs in the next three months.

The company already employs 28 staff in Co Carlow.

Superquinn Closing Dundalk Store and shedding 400 jobs

67 jobs will be lost in Dundalk with the remaining jobs lost across the rest of the chain from senior management down. The redundancy announcement is the equivalent of 12% of the staff.

CEO Simon Burke says that most of the job losses will be amongst full-time staff.

The impact of the cross border shopping seams to have impacted the Dudnalk Store.

Nortel Networks has placed its Irish operation in administration. Nortel has a plant in Galway with arrount 300 staff.

It follows the decision by the Canadian telecommunications equipment manufacturer to file last week for bankruptcy protection in the United States.

Nortel Networks and several of its Canadian subsidiaries also applied for creditor protection under Canada’s Companies Creditors Arrangement Act.

The Toronto-headquartered group has appointed Ernst Young as administrators to Nortel Networks UK Limited and 18 of its other European, Middle East and African (EMEA) operations.

Its plant in Galway, which employs approximately 300 people, is included in the administration order.

Alan Bloom and David Hughes of Ernst Young have been appointed as joint administrators of Nortel (Ireland) Ltd.

The administrators have sought to reassure Nortel employees that the process is “expected to have no immediate impact on the company’s day-to-day operations including employee pay and benefits”.

Limerick based SerCom Solutions is set to make 120 staff redundant. Sercom are a supply chain specialist but will be discontinuing production and assembly in Limerick from May. Changing customer demand is cited as the reason for the jobs loss.

Sercom Solutions employs 312 staff in Limerick, Dublin, Poland, US and China. The China operation was set up in June 2006 and made 220 staff redundant in Dublin the previous year in a bid to reduce costs.

This news has resulted in mixed jobs news for the Limerick / Shannon region. It is further evidence of the fall of the manufacturing sector to low cost economies.

Arnotts have announced that they will be making 600 retail workers redundant. They are planning to invest 750m redeveloping their Henry Street store. When finished it will employ approx 1200 staff.