02/07/2003

IT firm announce £90m investment

Leading IT company, Seagate Technology has announced it is to invest £90 million at its Londonderry plant over the next three years.

The investment will help the US company's Springtown plant develop new technology that could provide computer manufacturers with hard disc drives that offer increases in storage capacity and performance.

Announcing the Invest-NI backed investment today alongside plant manager John Spangler, Enterprise Minister Ian Pearson said: “This is a major investment - among the most significant in recent years - in the North West and the wider Northern Ireland economy, by a global industry leader that has become a driving force here in the electronics industry in terms of its focus on innovation and relationships in the universities on cutting-edge R&D projects.

“As well as positioning the Springtown operation at the very centre of Seagate’s most advanced technology, the investment is a signal to the international electronics industry that Northern Ireland is a perfect location for knowledge-led companies with a strong global focus.”

Mr Pearson said the investment would also reinforce the Department’s regional innovation strategy ‘Think/Create/Innovate’ and the work of Invest NI in encouraging industry and the universities to invest in higher levels of R&D.

Seagate's Plant Manager, John Spangler, added: “Continued commitment to R&D is an essential part of Seagate’s corporate strategy to maintain technology leadership and our operations at Springtown and Limavady both have centres of excellence working on advanced technology projects.

“Springtown will play a central role in extending our capability to develop advanced technology products using a variety of materials that are required to provide the vast amounts of storage demanded by the latest digital systems.”

Today's announcement follows a previous R&D investment earlier in the year which will enable Seagate to undertake a strategic research project on the next generation of magnetic recording technology and a Research Centre of Excellence at its Limavady plant.

Seagate is a leading player in the design, manufacture and marketing of hard disc drives for Enterprise, PC and Consumer Electronics applications worldwide.

The company's two facilities in Northern Ireland employ over 1,800 people.

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