IRELAND was the clear favourite on the final list of possible locations for DSC's new operations in Europe and eventually won out from Wales and the Netherlands.
Mr George Simpson, vice president of operations, said Ireland - was chosen as a location from which to target continued growth in European and Asian markets, following intense evaluation of international developments and needs in the industry.
Ireland was best situated to meet DSC's demands, he said. "The necessary infrastructure is here to support our business. Most of our transportation is by air, so the logistics of Ireland as a location were not a challenge. It was the quality of the financial incentives and the people here that could build our product..."
DSC products involve computer hardware but are updated using software, "and our development here will have the software and support services needed. We are also in Puerto Rico, the UK and Denmark and are now in Ireland as part of our evolving process. There will be other sites", said Mr Simpson.
Up to a few years ago, DSC was US based, but soon moved to grow beyond domestic market. "The company has the objective to grow in line with the market in the 20-30 per cent range a year. In our 14 year history we have grown in excess of 35 per cent a year which is tremendous. We control our destiny and there are opportunities for further growth," according to Mr Raymond Adams, vice president of DSC Corporate Communications.
The company says it will develop and enhance its operations where the market demands and where existing operations are successful. Although DSC first contacted the IDA three years ago to discuss Ireland as a location, it was only in the last 12 months that it was definitely chosen as a location and only six months ago that Drogheda was chosen over Bray or Dublin. The location of Dublin Airport on the north of the city gave Drogheda an edge over Bray.
"We have operations in cities and outside of urban areas but smaller communities have an appeal. (In smaller communities) we are more significant and that tends to attract and retain good quality people.
"We want good quality people who will stay with us. We also visited Dundalk RTC and expect support from them. Drogheda has the facility to meet our needs in terms of size and lay out of the factory.
"In Ireland we can avail of quality trained people, the universities and technology colleges are still producing people in excess of demand and there is political and economic stability... we have even looked at future traffic growth, the highway system and even the weather - we have the hurricane season in Puerto Rico," he said.
All the company's operations are standardised, so if a catastrophe strikes, it can switch production to another site within days. Both company spokesmen said the support of the IDA and the Government from the beginning of their contacts led them to believe that such support would be ongoing and played an important role in the final decision to chose Ireland.
In Drogheda DSC will not have other industries drawing on the same pool of talent, allowing it to become, as Mr Simpson put it, "a leader, more than a follower".
