Microsemi name Ennis as new hub

The designation of Microsemi’s Ennis plant as its new European headquarters has been hailed as a catalyst to attract other investors and additional jobs to the county town.
Ennis Chamber chief executive officer, Rita McInerney, said the announcement is a significant boost to efforts by the Chamber, Clare County Council and employment agencies to attract new firms to locate in Ennis.
Ms McInerney predicts Microsemi, which is regarded as a leading provider of semiconductor solutions, could be used as a case study of a company that overcame an uncertain future a few years ago to become hugely successful.
Describing the announcement as a “major confidence boost for Ennis”, she pointed out it also safeguards the retention of up to 300 jobs, following the creation of 50 new positions last January.
“Multinational companies don’t take major decisions like this lightly. The cost of doing business in Ireland is relatively high so the management and quality of the product produced by the Ennis workforce won the day, in addition to its location near universities such as the University of Limerick and Shannon International Airport,” she said.
Speaking to The Clare Champion at the Ennis facility on Tuesday, Microsemi president James J Peterson predicted Ennis would also benefit from the future projected growth of the company.
“When we first came to Ennis we were a manufacturing arm for a specific market space. We’ve expanded to capture different markets and now we’re expanding the technology base.
“We’ve just broken through a billion dollars in US revenue a year. Next year, revenue growth is targeted to be up an additional 15%. So there’s great momentum going on within the company and I think the benefactor of it and some of the reason for its success is here in Ennis,” he said.
When Mr Peterson visited the Ennis facility last year he was asked by The Clare Champion about the possibility of making the plant its European hub. He confirmed at the time the proposal was under consideration. That visit proved to be the trigger for a series of actions involving the board of directors and legal counsel, culminating in this week’s announcement.
“Since last year, we’ve increased US$25-30 million outside of Ennis. We’ve done multiple acquisitions within the corporation and the senior staff thought the Ennis proposal was a fabulous idea.
“You assign difficult tasks because business is a difficult task and you look at the results. Everything we’ve done here in Ennis, every task we’ve given Richard Finn and his team, the results will have come out equal to or better than our expectations.
“That kind of behaviour and the consistency should be rewarded and this is, in a way, a reward. It should tell worldwide that the relationship that Microsemi has with Europe is important to us but equally important, maybe being a step more important, is where we put our corporate headquarters and it’s right here in Ennis.
“You have to have a strong business model. You have to have educated and talented employees and we have that in Ennis. The IDA has been a business-partner and advisor to Microsemi,” he added.
Microsemi Ireland vice-president and Ennis general manager, Richard Finn, confirmed the Ennis facility had secured the transfer of business from the US after meeting certain targets. He said he is looking at the possibility of further developments in the future.
“Microsemi has about 15 sites in Europe. There’s a lot of consolidation happening in those sites. The finance, legal, HR, all those functions for all of Europe are controlled in Ennis. So there’s quite a bit going on behind the announcement.”
In the past, Ennis did the sub-contract work for the head divisions in the United States.
“Now we’ve taken the business here and we supply the customers directly from here. So it’s kind of a different relationship. We own the customer relationship now whereas in the past, it would have been on the sub-contract lock-by-lock basis. So it’s a more integrated, vertical business than it used to be five years ago,” he noted.
“It’s 100% exports – probably 70% back into the States, about 20% into Europe and about 10% to Asia. It’s a global market, so we’ve got to play against the global players,” Mr Finn added.

The announcement represents a significant endorsement of the work of the Ennis facility and its contribution to the wider Microsemi global network. Ennis has been described by the company as a “world class facility” and a key contributor in the manufacturing processes of the company’s high reliability products. The facility has recruited an additional 50 staff so far in 2012, taking headcount at the site to approximately 300.
Deputy Joe Carey described the announcement as a “real vote of confidence in this region, its workforce and the future of the Mid-West”.
“The company will have done its homework and will know that we have a vastly improved infrastructure network in the Mid-West, easy access to a global market and a skilled and dedicated workforce, all of which will help foster future growth and development,” he said.