£60 Million Invested in Seagate Springtown, Londonderry Plant

Seagate Technology announced a package of investments totaling approximately £60 million centred on its plant at Springtown in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Seagate’s investment of c. £47.3m will be enhanced with grants totaling £12.7m from Invest Northern Ireland. The funding will be focused on Research & Development, substantially enhancing the importance and technical relevance of the Springtown operation and increasing R&D related jobs there by 85. A further 10 related research posts will be created with an innovative collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast.

Steve Luczo, Chairman, CEO and President of Seagate Technology, and Bob Whitmore, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, were in Northern Ireland to celebrate the announcement which Mr Luczo described as ‘of major importance to Seagate globally.’

He said: “Technical innovation is the cornerstone of our success and the decision to locate this important strategic R&D investment in Northern Ireland is a measure of our confidence not only in the Springtown operation, but also in the wealth of intellectual talent available here. The financial support of Invest Northern Ireland and that organisation’s commitment to encouraging innovation were of pivotal importance in securing this venture for Northern Ireland. INI has proved itself to be a creative, supportive and, indeed, challenging partner and we are delighted to have earned its endorsement for a project that we are confident will bring substantial benefits to Northern Ireland. We look forward to further developing our strong and mutually productive association with Queen’s University. QUB has a worldwide reputation for excellence and innovation in digital electronics and related fields and we hope that the collaboration that we announce today, establishing a new research facility at the university’s Department of Physics, will be a catalyst for many more positive developments for the future.”

 Brian Burns who took up his post as Vice President of Operations, Springtown just this month said: “I am delighted to start my official duties at the Springtown plant with news of one of the most significant business investments to have been made in the North West in recent years. Seagate’s Springtown operation is already recognized as one of the United Kingdom’s most advanced nanotechnology scale manufacturing facilities and this latest investment will serve to cement and enhance that reputation. Springtown is benefiting from Seagate’s global policy of establishing R&D within its manufacturing facilities and will play a vital part in the company’s corporate strategy to maintain technology leadership.”

Brian Burns returned to his native Northern Ireland in January 2010 to take up the post of Vice President of Operations, Springtown.  He started his career with Seagate in 1993 following a period as research scientist with the National Microelectronics Research Centre in Cork and was Plant Manager of the company’s Limavady facility before becoming Vice President Substrate Operations based in Johor, Malaysia. Brian graduated from the University of Ulster with a BSc Honours in Physics and earned his PhD in Physics at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Seagate employs more than 1,300 people in Northern Ireland at its wafer fabrication facility in Springtown, where the Company develops and manufactures recording heads, which write information onto and read information from the recording disk inside a hard drive product.