February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
Heiton Group, a leading supplier of building materials to Irish construction, has bought Cork Builders Providers for euro 23.75 million.
Heiton’s CEO, Leo Martin, said that his company also plans to develop a 96-bed hotel, office and retail development at the group’s 15-acre Bishopstown site.
“I am very pleased with the deal,” said Martin, adding that at this stage Heiton is 10 percent bigger in terms of turnover than its archrival, Grafton Group, in the Irish market.
Killybegs gets expertise
A Belfast engineering consultancy has sealed a deal with a harbor redevelopment project for Killybegs harbor in County Donegal.
Follow us on social media
Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo
Kirk McClure Morton will be responsible for design and project management.
The Republic’s minister for the marine, Frank Fahey, said it was the biggest fishery harbor development in the history of the state.
At the signing ceremony, Fahey said Killybegs is the Republic’s premier fishing port and was of vital economic importance for jobs in Donegal and the whole northwest region.
Failing West Belfast
The West Belfast Economic Forum has accused job creation agencies of “failing the area.”
In a report, the organization said that West Belfast remains “an area of deep and enduring socio-economic disadvantage.”
It cited statistics that male unemployment stands at 21.6 percent, five times higher than the rest of Belfast, and three times above the Northern Irish average.
Ten percent of school pupils leave school without any qualifications.
Una Gillespie of the West Belfast Economic Forum, said, “This report highlights clearly the abject failure of past administrations and departments to overturn years of state discrimination and neglect.
“We hope the document will be used by people and groups in the area to challenge inequality and deprivation.”
Stopped watch
A watch that stopped when its owner jumped of the Titanic as the doomed liner sunk, has been sold for almost _20,000.
The hands of the gold-plated watch, rescued from the body of John Gill, 24, have remained permanently at 3:21 a.m. since April 15, 1912.
The British Titanic Society Convention organized the auction to mark the disaster’s 90th anniversary.
Gill’s body was found in the Atlantic on April 23 and his watch and other items, including coins, a comb and a collar stud, were recovered.
Both the watch and the mechanism were kept by the family until last year, when they were auctioned with other mementos.