Seagate pumps cash into Derry plant

Hard-disk vendor Seagate has responded to ever-increasing global demand for digital storage by injecting £120m into its Springbank facility in Northern Ireland.

Springbank manufactures read-write heads exclusively for Seagate drives, and the firm claimed that it currently outputs around one third of the world’s supply of the components.

Seagate corporate communications director Ian O’Leary said the investment needed to be seen in the medium term instead of in the context of the current economic slowdown: “There’s definitely growing demand. Although the world economy is nervous, markets such as China, India and Russia are still growing very rapidly.”

O’Leary added: “This allows us to dramatically increase our output. In fact we plan to double it over the next two years.”

The move comes almost a year after the firm, which is one of the largest employers in Northern Ireland, closed down its substrate manufacturing plant in nearby Limavady. The factory will close its doors in October. O’Leary added that although Seagate had obviously been unable to save all 900 jobs at Limavady, new positions had been found for some key qualified workers at Springbank.