Quinn shelves plans for new Welsh facility as UK market slows down
Thursday August 28 2008
Billionaire businessman Sean Quinn has mothballed plans for an €84m insulation panel production plant in Wales.
The facility, which was to be constructed next to the Quinn Group's existing radiator manufacturing site in Newport, was expected to create 340 jobs and be operational by the first half of this year.
A spokesman for the Quinn Group confirmed yesterday that the proposal for the new facility had initially been delayed last year by the planning process and that there is no current timeframe for construction to commence.
The Quinn Therm division will now postpone the investment until there's a clear indication that construction activity in the UK has begun to recover. That could take some time, potentially pushing back plans for the new factory by up to two years.
The Quinn Group acquired its current radiator manufacturing facility in Newport in 2005 for £133m. It was formerly occupied by electronics group LG. That factory employs over 400 people and can produce up to four million radiators a year.
Quinn Therm already has an insulation plant in Ireland which was commissioned in 2004 and produces rigid polyurethane board.
Yesterday, Kingspan said that operating profits at its insulated panels and boards division had fallen 21pc in the first half of this year to €59.1m.
- John Mulligan
