Updated 15.48
EIGHT FIRMS HAVE unveiled plans to add over 250 jobs in total to their Irish operations – but only a small share of the roles will be based outside Dublin.
One of the local companies, Dublin startup Smarter Surfaces, said it planned to hire 29 staff over the next two years after signing distribution deals worth €6 million for the period.
The four-year-old firm, which designs products that can turn any surface into a functional whiteboard, will recruit international sales and e-commerce staff for an expansion backed by the AIB Seed Capital Fund and Dublin BIC.
Sports retailer Elverys Intersport also plans to add 40 jobs across the country and the company will open a new store at St Stephen’s Green as part of a €1.5 million investment.
The positions will be across the chain’s operations from marketing to e-commerce and retail management.
Foreign investment
Meanwhile, six fast-growing American and European companies today announced they wanted to add 185 new positions as part of an IDA drive to lure early-stage firms in high-tech industries.
One of the tech firms, Massachusetts-based NuoDB today announced it was setting up a new development centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in Dublin as well as an office in Belfast.
The five-year-old database management startup plans to hire 50 engineers and tech support workers for its centre in the Republic.
Another three US tech companies, Artisan Infrastructure, DataClarity and Modern Marketing Concepts, announced they were setting up new EMEA headquarters in Dublin.
The firms said they would add a combined total of 90 jobs ranging from engineering and research-and-development roles, to sales and call centre staff.
French fin-tech startup Megatransfert plans to add another 20 developers, engineers and tech support workers in its Dublin office, which the company set up in mid-2014.
Indiana-based medical-device manufacturer CRI was the only one of the companies to announce plans to hire outside Dublin with an extra 25 workers to be hired for its Wexford operations.
Not a failure
Jobs Minister Richard Bruton denied the latest jobs news represented a failure of the government to encourage foreign investment outside the capital.
“Clearly the emerging companies come for certain key technologies and they will go to the centres that will offer them that,” he said.
Different regions build strengths, but you will see in the southeast, which is growing, seeing its strength in pharmaceuticals and medical devices – one of the companies today is going to Wexford and that is an area which we have particularly targeted.”
Last year only 37% of all investment from IDA client companies went to regions outside Dublin and Cork, although that share was up from 30% in 2013.
IDA CEO Martin Shanahan said the agency had a strategy of attracting high-growth companies and many of its clients which started out with “modest plans” had become among the top employers in Ireland.
First published 12.27am
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