The boom to bust story of Dell

NOTHING encapsulates the decade ending like the Raheen roller-coaster, the Dell debacle.

Back 10 years ago a review of the 1999 property market in the IAVI’s Property Valuer, focusing on Munster, reported the planned start of a £20 million, 350,0000 sq ft development by Dell Computers at Limerick’s Raheen Industrial Estate.

It all got built, swelling to almost 400,000 sq ft of building on 30 acres, and employment consequently soared. Then, it soured. Jobs were transferred to lower-cost Poland with 2,000 jobs shed during 2009, and the year ends with the entire former Dell plant, now rebranded as ‘Eurotech’, up for sale by DTZ, with a round €20m price expectation – the same sort of number as Dell’s initial investment value 10 years ago.