Internet firms lead the way as Google is named as Ireland’s largest exporter
Overall, the information and communication technology, life sciences and agri-food sectors performed strongly in 2011, according to the Irish Exporters Association’s (IEA) annual publication of the Top 250 Exporting Companies in Ireland.
Google’s performance is all the more remarkable considering it has been in the country for less than 10 years. It opened its European headquarters in Dublin in 2003 with a staff of 100. Google now employs close to 2000 people and is the internet behemoth’s largest operation outside the US.
The growing presence of social media companies in Ireland is reflected in the list of top exporting countries, as the CEO of the IEA, John Whelan, explains: “The continued success in attracting to Ireland the ‘born on the internet’ companies is clearly evident in the Top 250 report, with Google expanding its sales by over 50% and Facebook entering the top 250 for the first time with export sales of €229m.
“PayPal Services Europe also features for the first time with exports of €92m. The internet companies are one of the drivers of the fast growing services export sector which last year accounted for €79bn in exports, and 46% of total Irish exports.”
The top five indigenous Irish firms on the list — Smurfit, Kerry Group, Glanbia, Glen Dimplex and the Irish Dairy Board — now sell over half their entire goods and services from operations outside Ireland.
The parlous state of the domestic economy is forcing more Irish companies to beef up overseas operations in an effort to boost overall revenues and growth opportunities.
Irish firms made €261bn in outward direct investment, which is considerably more than the €185bn in foreign direct investment which came into the economy.
“Outward direct investment is now commonplace among a wide range of large and medium sized Irish-owned companies and is seen as a complimentary process to traditional exporting.
“It can be a more suitable means to gain market share in other countries for some products and services.
“Also in-country presence through outward direct investment can help overcome trade barriers where market access is limited, particularly in emerging economies,” said Mr Whelan.
There has been a huge turnaround in the ICT sector over the past decade. In 2002, three-quarters of the €40bn of ICT exports came from computer hardware. Last year only €8bn of the €40.2bn of ICT exports came from hardware.
The rest came from software and internet services, such as Google and Facebook.
The agri-food sector posted another robust performance in 2011 on the back of strong demand from Asia and the Middle East in particular.
Kerry Group and Glanbia have both hugely benefited from the growing global demand for health and nutritional products, noted the IEA.
The pharmaceutical sector had a strong presence in the top 20 exporting companies, although life sciences and medical devices are also climbing up the list of top 250 exports.
