APC R&D Centre

APC to establish European R&D Centre in Galway

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Mary Harney today (Tuesday 10th December 2002) announced that APC has decided to establish a European R&D Centre in Ireland at its European headquarters in Galway. The investment is supported by IDA Ireland. APC, over the course of the agreement, anticipates investing in excess of €1 million in this new Centre.

Making the announcement, the Tánaiste said: "This Centre will play an integral part in developing the software and technology to keep APC at the forefront of its business and will create highly skilled jobs in Ireland. It will also expand the role of APC's Irish operations within the Corporation,"

She continued: "APC chose Galway against competition from other APC locations worldwide. The decision to locate the Centre here was strongly influenced by the successful role played by APC's existing Irish operations in its global business."

"This project is an excellent model of the kind of investment IDA wants to achieve throughout the ICT sector here. It shows that overseas companies in the sector in Ireland are not just alive and well but are investing in innovation and creating higher value activities to give them more control over their futures. It also proves that Ireland has retained the capacity and the competitiveness to attract investments which will create quality employment in leading-edge operations," said the Tánaiste.

APC (American Power Conversion Corporation) provides products which keep computer networks alive and operating and protect communications and electronic equipment when the external power supply is unreliable or suddenly cut-off. Virtually every major organisation is required to protect its data centre or communications network from failure or surges of the power supply, as either could cause loss or damage of the stored data.

The Irish development team's initial role in the new Centre will be to develop software which will ensure compatibility of APC's products with all relevant computer operating systems. The software team in APC Galway raised its own profile within APC when it played an integral role in the development of power protection software incorporated in Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system. Additionally, it exclusively developed APC's flagship consumer software offering, PowerChute Personal Edition. The hardware R&D will include teams with responsibility for R&D in a relatively new area of focus for APC, precision cooling products.

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