Burnside Eurocyl to create up to 25 jobs in Carlow – €3.5m expansion on cards
Image of the west-side of Carlow Castle. Image via Wikimedia Commons

Burnside Eurocyl to create up to 25 jobs in Carlow – €3.5m expansion on cards

17 Sep 2013

Irish family-owned company Burnside Eurocyl, which manufactures hydraulic cylinders, is to create up to 25 jobs as it is planning a €3.5m expansion of its manufacturing hub, supported by Enterprise Ireland. Brothers Tom and Anthony Byrne are on a mission to grow the business from its Carlow base and target new export makets.

With this €3.5m investment, Burnside Eurocyl is planning to take on new hires, expand its manufacturing facilities, upgrade R&D facilities, and train employees in ‘lean manufacturing’ techniques – the manufacturing way originally conceived by Toyota.

The ultimate goal, according to the Byrnes, will be for Burnside Eurocyl to increase its export business by 10pc per year.

At the minute, 95pc of all Burnside’s sales are exported to 16 countries across mainland Europe, the US and Canada. The firm recently started doing business in China and Russia.  

Richard Bruton, TD, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, is en-route to Burnside Eurocyl, where he is set to make a formal announcement at 4.30pm regarding the new jobs and the expansion.

Some of the jobs have already been filled, but Burnside Eurocyl is aiming to fill the remaining roles over the next 18 months, bringing total employment at the company to 170.

Burnside Eurocyl is a member of the Burnside group of companies founded by the Byrne family in Carlow Town in 1974.

Tom and Anthony Byrne set up Burnside Eurocyl in 1998, and the company operates from a purpose-built 80,000 sq-foot facility in Carlow Town, where it already employs 155 staff.  

Apparently, Burnside Eurocyl is one of Europe’s largest hydraulic cylinder manufacturers and supplies original equipment manufacturers on a ‘just-in-time’ basis.

Some of the company’s clients include Volvo and JCB, as well as industry giants such as Komatsu, Doosan Bobcat and the Wirtgen Group.

According to Bruton, companies like Burnside have the scope to be the “engines of Irish recovery”.

Action Plan for Jobs

Speaking earlier today, Bruton said the Irish Government, through its Action Plan for Jobs, has conceived a number of measures to provide better supports for such indigenous firms. These measures include the Development Capital Scheme and the Foreign Earnings Deduction.

Tom and Anthony Byrne, joint managing directors of Burnside Eurocyl, said the company is “committed” to growing the business in Carlow.

“This investment will enable us to expand our customer base over a wider geographic area and also into new market sectors,” said Tom Byrne.

Anthony Byrne added that a major factor in the growth of Burnside Eurocyl has been what he described as a “committed and experienced” workforce – most of whom have been with the company for some time now.

“The investment will also allow us to expand our employee training programme and further develop our lean manufacturing systems, not only creating 25 new jobs in Carlow but also securing the jobs of our existing employees,” he said.

With this latest support from Enterprise Ireland, and the investment, the Byrnes now want to expand the company’s sales by 30pc over the next three years.

As for the Burnside group, it operates four cylinder production plants in Co Carlow and employs a workforce of almost 600 people.

Carmel Doyle
By Carmel Doyle

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic. She reported on clean tech, innovation and start-ups, covering everything from renewable energy to electric vehicles, the smart grid, nanotech, space exploration, university spin-outs and technology transfer.

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