Volex Interconnect Systems recently announced a major expansion plan for its Castlebar plant. Volex wish to acquire a 7 acre site on the Breaffy Road at some £284,000 and an investment of some £3million is envisaged to expand their work force to 500 over the next year. Mayo County Council have agreed to the sale of the land from their land bank. Michael Newell the plants general manager said the expansion was necessary to cope with the growing market for their products.
Volex Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of moulded and mechanical cable assemblies for the computer and telecommunications markets. The Volex Group has 5500 employees with factories in Ireland, UK, USA, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia and China. The Chief Executive Officer of the Volex Group is a Castlebar-man, Dom Molloy.
In 1986, Volex, or Cable Products as it was then known, decided that it needed a European presence to support its global customers. Many locations were considered in Scotland and Ireland, but Castlebar was chosen: the main reason given by the American delegation was the sheer enthusiasm of the townspeople.
An Irish plant manager, Dom Molloy, was appointed and a start-up team of local people were put together. However, Cable Products Inc. were still holding onto the Sales/Marketing and Engineering functions.
Production started in late 1986 and when the first container rolled out of the factory in February 1987 the company had 35 employees. Just six months later the company was awarded ISO 90002. The customer base was expanded. As sales increased so did headcount. Despite fierce competition from other Cable Products plants, Castlebar continued to flourish and became the most efficient plant within the group of companies.
In 1992, Cable Products was acquired by the Volex Group plc. which is headquartered in Warrington, UK and has five autonomous divisions. From the beginning, Volex Castlebar was established as a division in its own right. In 1993, Volex Castlebar won the National award for training for companies with 100-500 employees.
Volex Ltd. Castlebar has gone from strength to strength. The company now employs over 400 people and has established itself as a leader in its markets and there should be 500 within the next year.
The customer list now includes Nortel, Ericsson, Matra, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, Storage Tek, Silicon Graphics, Cisco Systems, Eurologic, Eicon Technologies and Allgon. The Sales/Marketing responsibility for Europe now rests in Castlebar, with a team of salespeople visiting the different accounts. The Engineering responsibility is now well established with a team of 10 engineers developing new products as well as assisting on-going production.
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