Fujitsu Expands in Europe

Unlike most companies that are active in the computer hardware manufacturing business, the Japanese firm Fujitsu did not choose South or Central Asia as the preferred location to open a new facility but Europe, Northern Ireland to be more exact.

Most computer hardware manufacturers are going in the Asian area because of lower relative costs that enable them to bring cheaper products to their customers, while still ramming up a nice profit margin. The new Irish facility will be operated by the services division of the Fujitsu company, named Fujitsu Services and it will be located in Derry. Already plans are going for the recruitment of personal as 50 staff are signed up. A total of 328 jobs are created in the region by the company's Managed IT Services Centre of Excellence that plans to invest an additional STG18 million in the same area.

According to the news site Enn, Eithne Wallis, the managing director of the Government Business department from the Fujitsu Services division said that "We are delighted to open this new facility in Derry which will bring our overall employee base in Northern Ireland to over 800. Today represents the culmination of a great deal of planning and hard work for Fujitsu and builds on over 30 years' working and investing in Northern Ireland". He also said that the whole region was chosen because of its high density of IT related workforce and even if the recruitment process is a little bit ahead of schedule, a variety of IT related jobs are still available "right across the IT services spectrum".

As part of its initial investment in the area, Fujitsu Services is going to create another 74 jobs at its Belfast facility as well as 30 more jobs at its Oracle Centre of Excellence which is also located in Belfast.