APC to cut jobs in Galway

27-06-2006

by Deirdre McArdle

American Power Conversion has announced plans to consolidate its Irish operations, cutting up to 250 jobs at its Galway facility in the process.

The US firm, which manufactures power management devices, reportedly employs 680 staff in Ireland: 550 in Galway; a little over 100 in Castlebar, Co Mayo; with the remainder in Clonshaugh, Dublin.

The firm said it will consolidate its Irish manufacturing operations in its Castlebar facility and redeploy a number of its customer-facing positions to locations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A selection of sales, IT, R&D and business support functions will be retained in the firm's Galway facility.

"In an effort to improve our competitiveness as well as become increasingly customer-centric, APC has been actively working to reduce operational costs and improve company productivity through the transition of production to lower-cost areas, as well as the deployment of customer-facing activities closer to the customer," explained Rodger Dowdell Jr, APC president and chief executive officer.

"The redeployment and the reduction of certain positions in Ireland is the direct result of this strategy, and while this was a very difficult decision to make, it better positions APC both financially and competitively."

APC said it expects this round of streamlining to be completed in the first quarter of 2007. It estimates the severance costs will affect the firm's third quarter results, costing it between USD4 million and USD5 million.

Just two weeks ago APC announced the appointment of David O'Connor to the position of Country Manager for Ireland. O'Connor joined APC from Cara BT, and his brief will be to manage APC's channel, SMB and enterprise sales teams, as well as grow revenue for the US firm's Irish business.