Close to 100 job losses announced at Maxtor


22 Dec 2006

Bad news to get at any time, but especially at Christmas: around 100 jobs are to go at Maxtor’s operation in Bray, Co Wicklow.

The company, which makes data storage systems, plans to make close to three quarters of its staff in Ireland redundant, according to reports. Once employee numbers have been cut, 33 people will be left.

The Bray facility was first set up in 1990 and carries out many of the company’s operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including customer service, finance, IT, sales and engineering. Last year it moved its hard drive repair and recovery business from Ireland to Budapest in Hungary.

Maxtor was acquired earlier this year by the disk drive marker Seagate for US$1.9bn.

Ironically, the news came on the same day that a survey by the small business group ISME found that the manufacturing sector in Ireland was the least optimistic about employment prospects facing into the year ahead.

By Gordon Smith