February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Jefferson Smurfit Group, the Irish-based paper packaging group, has announced that a wholly owned subsidiary has increased its stake in Austrian company, Nettingsdorfer Papierfabrik AG & Co. from 75 percent to 100 percent. Consideration is 54.8 million euros payable in July 2003.
The Austrian operations of Nettingsdorfer consist of a kraftliner mill with annual production capacity of 420,000 tons and a corrugated plant with annual production capacity of 45,000 tons.
Nettingsdorfer also has majority ownership of four corrugated plants in Italy with combined annual production capacity of 220,000 tons and 50 percent of a small corrugated plant in Malta. JSG now has a 14 percent share of corrugated sales in Italy.
Tony Smurfit, chief executive of Smurfit Europe, said, "This investment further simplifies our structure in Europe and we now have, together with our Facture mill in France, consolidated our position as the leading kraftliner producer in Europe with annual production capacity of 900,000 tons."
New jobs for Cork
As many as 420 jobs may be created in Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork, by two IDA-backed companies.
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Millipore Ireland will create 220 jobs in a £17 million expansion of its filtration device manufacturing plant facilities. Recruitment has already begun for the initial phase. The company was established in 1954 in Massachusetts and employs 5,000 people worldwide. It already has about 270 permanent employees in Cork, where it first set up a plant in 1988.
The Stryker Corporation, a healthcare company headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich., will create 200 jobs in a £35 million expansion of its plant that specializes in making orthopedic hip and new joints.
The new jobs will be for people with a range of engineering, material science and advanced manufacturing qualifications and skills.
Stryker now has three manufacturing facilities in Ireland. Two are at Carrigtwohill. Stryker Howmedica Osteonics, which employs 80 and is expanding, and Stryker Instruments, which employs 65 making surgical blades and needles used in orthopedic surgery. The third facility is in Limerick. Set up in 1972 it employs 340 people and specialises in the design and manufacture of complex knee implant systems.
Tanaiste Mary Harney said both of the expansions will involve the introduction of new technologies and processes.
The medical services sector in which both companies operate employs more than 16,000 people in Ireland. There are 80 companies in the sector including 13 of the world’s 20 largest companies in the field.