Jobs blow for Cork tech sector - again
08-03-2007
by Deirdre McArdle

US company Bourns Electronics, which has been based in Cork for 26 years, is to close with the loss of 80 jobs.

The firm, which makes electronic parts for the automotive industry, has blamed a rise in manufacturing costs and global competition for its decision to re-locate to the cheaper economies of Hungary and Mexico.

The closure of Bourns Electronics, which is based in the Mahon Industrial Estate in Cork, will happen on a phased basis and is expected to take less than a year. Just 10 staff will remain at the Cork facility.

Bourns Electronics established a facility in Cork in 1980, and at its peak it employed 240 people. At its Cork base the company developed specialised thick film printing techniques aimed at the car industry. Over the years, as it sought to branch out into new products, it established a strategic partnership with the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC), which provided the Bourns product development team in Cork with access to NMRC technology and expertise in selected technology areas.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Cork TD, Micheal Martin, has expressed disappointment in this latest series of job losses to hit Cork. "Our immediate priority must be securing alternative employment for these workers. FAS and the other agencies of the State will give the workers losing their jobs every possible support in securing alternative employment."

The Labour Party TD for Cork North Central Kathleen Lynch has accused the Enterprise Minister of "sitting on his hands" and has called on him to "take action and instruct the various agencies to prioritise Cork in terms of the search for new manufacturing jobs."

These latest job losses, coming so soon after the loss of around 350 staff at Motorola's facility in Cork and 240 redundancies at electronics firm FCI in Fermoy, prompted the Labour Party to suggest that Cork is in danger of becoming an "employment blackspot".

Bourns Electronics has its global headquarters in Riverside, California and nine other facilities around the world.