Abtran to create 250 jobs in €6m RD investment

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen yesterday hailed the success of a Cork firm that has grown from just six staff to 600 in the space of just over a decade. Mr Cowen was on hand to announce plans to create a further 250 jobs at outsourced business services group Abtran.

Mr Cowen said the decision by Abtran to create 250 graduate-level jobs through a €6 million investment in RD at its base at the University Technology Park in Cork showed how Irish companies could compete and succeed internationally.

Established in 1997, Abtran specialises in business processing outsources and its customers include the ESB, Hibernian Aviva, Prometric and BSkyB as well as large public sector and corporate clients and it has a turnover approaching €30 million annually.

Mr Cowen said the €6 million investment “represents a significant step in the company’s development as a global leader in the market”.

Mr Cowen paid tribute to Abtran founder and managing director, Michael Fitzgerald and his team who, by focusing on key economic drivers such as RD, improving productivity, building strong management teams and winning export sales, have shown that Irish companies can compete with the best.

“They are a model of the kind of company we need as we build our smart economy,” said Mr Cowen who also paid tribute to Enterprise Ireland for its support of Abtran and other indigenous industries in the business process outsourcing sector.

Mr Fitzgerald said the new learning and innovation centre which is due to create the new jobs by 2010 will be at the heart of the company’s efforts to give even better value to its customers.

“This investment is about creating smart, sustainable and scalable efficiencies which will transform the way that our clients do business and will allow us to compete at the highest level,” he said.

“Learning and innovation is not just about technology – for us, it’s all about people and by empowering and enabling our people we increase our expertise and add further to our clients’ businesses, allowing their core staff to concentrate on their strategic objectives.”

News of the job creation at the new Abtran innovation centre was warmly welcomed by Cork Chamber chief executive, Conor Healy: “The creation of these new positions is a major boost to the local economy at a time when it is most needed.”