Olympus €5m expansion to create 22 new jobs

Clinical research company Olympus Diagnostica is to create 22 new jobs in a €5m expansion of its Research and Development facility in Co Clare.

The Tokyo-based company established the Clare facility in 1982 and currently employs 215 people.

The move will make the Clare plant the sole Olympus manufacturing site for the development and production of clinical chemistry reagents for the in-vitro diagnostic market (IVD), in the world.

IVD testing is important for early and correct diagnosis of illness and for ensuring that the treatment individual patients receive is having a beneficial effect.

It contributed to diagnostics group sales of €118m for the year to March 2003 and is part of the Olympus Life Sciences Group whose core activities are microscopes, diagnostics and genome business.

Making the announcement today, Tánaiste Mary Harney said: “This investment will substantially up-grade the existing R&D capabilities at the Clare operation and will strengthen and enhance the Irish company’s reputation within the parent group.

“It is a considerable vote of confidence in the management and workforce and will further consolidate the facility and increase its role in the Group’s global business strategy of the future,” Harney added.

Olympus Optical Co. Ltd, founded in Japan in 1919, is a publicly quoted company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

It employs 24,000 people worldwide and net sales for the year ending March 2003 were almost €4.4bn, with a net income of over €188m.

It operates four product groups – imaging systems, industrial systems, medical systems and life sciences.