PHOTOGRAPHIC film manufacturer Eastman Kodak will recruit 100 people over the next six months and plans eventually to create 400 new jobs in Limerick in a £100 million investment.
The investment to manufacture film cassettes for its latest Advanced Photo System (APS) would be a four-year project, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment Mr Bruton said yesterday.
Eastman Kodak is purchasing a 15-acre site at Limerick's national technological park. Planning permission has already been sanctioned by the local authority. Development and construction of the 250,000 sq ft plant will begin next month.
This is the second major investment in the Republic this year by the group. Earlier, it established a facility at Youghal, Co Cork, to manufacture CD-writable media products. More than 150 people are already employed there, with up to 100 more jobs due to come on stream.
The APS system is the new generation of photographic film and equipment, developed jointly over the last five years by Kodak, Fuji, Canon, Nikon and Minolta.
Kodak owns 60 per cent of the APS patent licence. APS has been developed for use in films, cameras, photo-finishing equipment, papers and other products from its US headquarters at Rochester, New York.
The Limerick manufacturing facility is the first APS film cartridge assembly plant outside of the US and will be producing for the European market, which currently accounts for up to 28 per cent of Kodak's total sales.
Eastman Kodak is one of the world leaders in the manufacture and sales of photographic film. Last year it reported sales of £9.5 billion with profits of £783 million. The company employs 96,000 people worldwide.
The latest announcement ends one of the most successful years for IDA Ireland, securing up to 20,000 new jobs.
