US company commits to 50 jobs at its two Galway plants

Date Published: {J}

by Denise McNamara

A new communications software multinational believes it will be recruiting more than 50 workers at its two new Galway plants on the back of European sales which have gone up by a fifth in a year.

Aspect, which opened in the IDA business park in Dangan and at the Claregalway corporate park in late December, has so far employed 37 people.

Aspect’s chief financial officer Mike Provenzano told the Connacht Sentinel yesterday that there are currently a further ten jobs still left to fill.

“We’ll see our way to getting 50 people in the facilities. We’ll grow as the business grows. Our sales are up 20% in Europe in a year. That bodes well for the company’s future here in Galway.”

Mr Provenzano was one of three top executives who travelled from Massachusetts in the US for the launch of their first Irish operation, which was located in Galway ahead of Dublin, Athlone and Limerick.

“We picked Galway because it had a great talent pool, a lot of our competitors are here which is a testament to the location, and there was great access to third level education. It is also a place where people wish to live which is important when it comes to recruiting from overseas or elsewhere in Ireland.”

He singled out the IDA as key to choosing Ireland for the European expansion, where staff will engage in customer technical support, software production and distribution and operate a shared services sentre for administration.

He added that the company only signed on the dotted line after receiving assurances from the government that the 12.5% corporate tax rate would be retained.

The fact that the country was in a recession presented an opportunity for Aspect to set up at a much lower cost than three years ago.

Mr Provenzano declined to outline the level of investment in the two facilities, describing it as “significant”.

Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation John Perry said the Government was committed to addressing start-up costs for businesses, which would help improve the bottom line for multinationals who set up here.

“The mandate of this Government is to make this country more competitive,” he said.

Workers will provide support to customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and some parts of the Asia Pacific region.

Aspect is a global software and IT services firm specialising in applying Microsoft unified communications and collaboration. It pioneered the use of the automated call distributor, technology which allows airlines to contact customers about flight changes.