25 jobs from £57m spend on nanophotonics

Noel Lavery, permanent secretary at the Department for the Economy with Seagate CEO Dave Mosley and Jeremy Fitch, Executive Director at Invest NI

The company has confirmed it is pumping £47.4m into its local operation with a further £9.95m promised from InvestNI.

Chamber President Brian McGrath said: “It is great to see that the investment will create 25 highly skilled jobs and will bring a number of important economic benefits to the area.This is a clear indication and endorsement that the North West is an important place to do business and emphasises that we have impressive talent and ability throughout the region.

“As President of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce I am looking forward to seeing this investment come to fruition.”

The funding will enable further research and development in nanophotonics, the study of the behaviour of light on a molecular scale.

Dave Mosley, Seagate Chief Executive said it would cement Springtown’s position as a leader in world class technology innovation.

“Technology innovation is the cornerstone of our success and the industry-leading innovation delivered by our facility in Springtown has been at the heart of our business strategy for the last 25 years. Today’s investment extends a successful, collaborative partnership with Invest NI and will further strengthen our ability to deliver customer-centric technology leadership for the data-driven future of the global economy,” said Mr. Mosley.

According to a recent IDC study sponsored by Seagate, global data creation will grow from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabytes by 2025, with big data analytics, smart cities and machine learning driving the need to deliver greater data storage capacity.

Jeremy Fitch, Executive Director of Business Solutions, Invest NI said: “Seagate first came to NI in 1994, investing £50 million and creating 500 new jobs. Fast forward 25 years and the facility now employs 1,400 people and it is estimated that the company has invested in excess of £1 billion in capital here. Supporting the company along the way has been Invest NI, with every £1 of our support contributing to £4 investment in the local economy. We are delighted to be able to offer support towards this latest project which will see 120 highly skilled researchers here at Springtown, including 25 new recruits, play a major role in the development of ground-breaking new technology.”