History 2000: MKE Closes Quantum Factory in Ireland, Leaving 360 Employees

Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics or MKE, the subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial, which manufactures all of Quantum’s HDDs, expects to be in the red for the first time since the company was formed more than 30 years ago.

The restructuring plant consists of regrouping all HDD production at 2 factories, one in Eshime Prefecture, Japan, the other in Singapore. A facility in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, will be transformed into a semi-finished disk drive production line, while an assembly plant in Dundalk, Ireland will be shut down by the end of June, leaving 360 employees, including 90 temporary workers, high and dry. The low number of lay-offs is due to the extreme automation of MKE’s production.

The MKIR Panasonic plant in Dundalk was established in 1992 – just 9 months after the opening next door of Quantum Peripherals Products (Ireland) Ltd., for distribution and customer service – and was assembling some of Quantum’s low cost 3.5-inch desktop HDDs.

After this closing, only one HDD plant will remain in Europe, IBM’s, in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.

Under the MKE restructuring plant, MKE’s CD-ROM drive production will also be concentrated, this time at the firm’s Indonesian plant.

European HDD Manufacturing Plants Closed:
Bull Peripherals (Belfort, France), Calluna (Glenrothes, Scotland), Conner/Olivetti (Pont Saint Martin, Italy), Conner Peripherals (Irvine, Scotland), DDF (Chalet, France), Digital Equipment (Kaufbeuren, Germany), DZU (Stara Zagora, Bulgaria), Hewlett Packard (Bristol, UK), Gigastorage International (Belfort, France), IBM (Berlin, Germany), IBM (Mainz, Germany), Maxtor (Bray, Ireland), MKE (Dundalk, Ireland), Newbury Data Recording/Maxtor (Winsford, UK), Robotron (in pre-reunification East Germany), Rodime (Glenrothes, Scotland), Seagate (Clonmel, Ireland), Siemens (Munchen, Germany), and Xyratex (Havant, UK)

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 147 on April 2000 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.