University of Dublin

TRINITY COLLEGE

The Metal Products Industry in Ireland (NACE code 27 & 28) between 1960 and

1992

George Joyce B.A.(Mod.) Business and Computing

Economic Policy and Business History 11/04/2016

School of Computer Science and Statistics

O’Reilly Institute, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

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Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 The History of the metal products industry in Ireland 3.0 The 1960s

3.1The Irish Economy in the 1960s 3.2 Metal Products Industry in the 1960s 3.3 Firm level data 3.3.1 IVI foundry 3.3.2 APV Desco 3.3.3 Metal Products Cork (LTD) 3.3.4 Patrick Kelly and Co. LTD 3.3.5 Thomas Pearson and Co. LTD 3.3.6 Mcloughlin J.C. LTD 3.3.7 Tonge & Taggart LTD 3.3.8 Tonge Mcloughlin 3.3.9 Hammond Lane Foundry 3.3.10 Irish Steel Holdings 3.3.11 Irish Aluminium Company 3.3.12 Waterford Metal Industries 3.3.13 Liebherr Cranes 3.3.14 Templemichael Mills 3.3.15 Newbridge Cutlery 3.3.16 Western Iron Company 3.3.17 SPS international 3.3.18 Smith and Pearson 3.3.19 Irish Wire Products 3.3.20 Unidare 3.3.21 Thomas Heiton and Co. LTD 3.3.22 Philip Pierce

3.4 1960s summary

4.0 The 1970s

4.1 The Irish Economy in the 1970s 4.2 The Metal Products Industry during the 1970s 4.3 Firm Level Data

4.3.1 APV Desco 4.3.2 Metal Products 4.3.3 IVI foundry 4.3.4 Tonge Mcloughlin 4.3.5 Hammond Lane foundry 4.3.6 Irish steel holdings 4.3.7 Irish Aluminium Company 4.3.8 Waterford Metal Industries 4.3.9 Liebherr Cranes 4.3.10 Thomas Thompson and Co. LTD 4.3.11 Templemichael mills

4.3.12 Newbridge cutlery 4.3.13 Keenan Brothers LTD 4.3.14 Ridge Tool 4.3.15 SPS international 4.3.16 Tubex Ireland 4.3.17 Smith and Pearson LTD 4.3.18 Irish Wire Products 4.3.19 Unidare 4.3.20 Thomas Brooks 4.3.21 Philip Pierce

4.4. Summary of the 1970s 5.0 1980-1992

5.1 Irish Economy from 1980-1992 5.2 The Metal Products Industry from 1980-1992 5.3 Firm level data

5.3.1 Metal Products (Cork) LTD 5.3.2 IVI foundry 5.3.3 Patrick Kelly and Co. LTD 5.3.4 Tonge Mcloughlin LTD 5.3.5 TMG group 5.3.6 Waterford foundry group 5.3.7 Hammond Lane foundry 5.3.8 Aughinish Alumina 5.3.9 Irish Steel Holdings 5.3.10 Irish Aluminium Company 5.3.11 Waterford Metal Industries 5.3.12 Liebherr Cranes 5.3.13 Thomas Thompson and son LTD 5.3.14 Keenan Brothers LTD 5.3.15 Ridge Tool 5.3.16 Tool and Gauge 5.3.17 SPS international 5.3.18 Radley engineering LTD 5.3.19 Atlas aluminium 5.3.20 Irish Wire Products 5.3.21 Stag Cutlery 5.3.22 Unidare 5.3.23 Thomas Brooks 5.3.24 Philip Pierce

5.4 Summary 1980-1992 6.0 Project Summary and conclusion References

Appendices: Appendix 1: Contribution to gross output by size structure 1992 Appendix 2: Ownership nationality of firms in 1992 Appendix 3: Ownership nationality of firms in 1992

Appendix 4: Number of firms by year Appendix 5: Number of firms by year Appendix 6: Total employed in the industry between 1960 and 1992

List of tables Table 1: Imports in the Metal Products Industry 1965-1969 Table 2: Size Structure of firms 1960 Table 3: Large firms in the Metal Products Industry in the 1960’s Table 4: Size Structure of firms 1975 Table 5: Large firms in the Metal Products Industry in the 1970’s Table 6: The employment and % of all manufacturing employees employed in metal for various years. Table 7: The Number of firms in the Metal Products industry in 1992 by size Table 8: Large firms in the Metal Products Industry in the 1980-92 Table 9: Contribution to gross output by size structure 1992 Table 10: Small firms as a % of overall number 1960 v 1992 Table 11: Average firm size comparison 1960 v 1992 Table 12: Import to export ratio by year Table 13: Ownership nationality of firms in 1992 Table 14: Number of firms by year Table 15 Total numbers employed in the industry between 1960 and 1992 List of figures Figure 1: Size structure of firms 1960 Figure 2: Size structure of firms 1975 Figure 3: Size structure of firms 1992 Figure 4: Contribution to gross output by size structure 1992 Figure 5: Ownership nationality of firms in 1992 Figure 6: Number of firms by year Figure 7: Graph of employment numbers in the Metal Products industry for various years.

1.0 - Introduction The sector of Metal Products covers two main sub sectors, the manufacture of basic metals (NACE code 27) and the Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment (NACE code 28). Approaching the 1960’s, the industry was one of the strongest of the manufacturing industries, both in terms of production and employment. However, like many manufacturing sectors, the metal products industry was stagnating due to the protectionist policies introduced by Fianna Fail in the 1930’s. This position was strengthened by the founding of the Irish export board in 1952 who were established to encourage and promote exporting in the country. Similarly, the industrial development authority (IDA) were given the role of promoting industry to not just improve the position of Irish firms but also attract foreign firms to the country. In both 1963 and 1964 there were overall tariff reductions of 10%. Under the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement, tariffs operating against imports from the United Kingdom were reduced by 10% on 1st July, 1966 and by a further 10% on the 1st July of each year since then (CIP, 1970). The fact that imports in this metal products industry rose dramatically from the offset of these agreements show that the indigenous firms would struggle to compete with those large foreign firms who enjoyed economies of scale. These figures can be seen below. While it is obvious that not all of these products being imported were even within the manufacturing capabilities of Irish firms, it seems clear that import substitution would become a big priority for the IDA over the period. As will be seen throughout the course of the report these economic and political situations had a profound effect on the sector. Most notably, they resulted in a large number of closures from relatively large firms and also quite a few mergers and takeovers. Over the period 1960-1992 there were many shifts in the industry, in particular the structure of the firms. While employment increased, the number of firms decreased, showing the schism between the larger firms and the smaller, more niche firms. In order to get to grips with the development and change of the sector over the period 1960 - 1992, I am going to split the period into three different sections. These are the 1960’s, 1970’s and from 1980-1992. I plan to start by giving a brief history of metals in Ireland from the origins of metals right up to 1960. I’ll then give some sort of economic background leading up to and including the 1960’s, as I will for the other two sub-periods I’ve chosen. This will be followed by an overview of the sector for each period, detailing the changes on a macro level preceded by a firm-level analysis. I will conclude with an overall project summary.

2.0 - History of metal products industry prior to 1960

This section will present a brief overview of the history of the metal products industry prior to the dates covered in the main body of this report, 1960 to 1992. The overview will provide some basic knowledge, which will introduce the first decade of my report, the 1920’s. Historically, metalworking has been one of the oldest activities by Ireland’s inhabitants. This dates back to 2500 BC, when Bronze was the primary metal used. Many weapons were manufactured including swords and hatchets, not to mention other items including drinking-utensils and hatchets. The earliest mines in Ireland are believed to be in Cork and Kerry and were extremely active throughout the Bronze Age. The first sign of metal manufacturing in Ireland came around the time of the turn of the seventeenth century, with Ironworks. Throughout this century, they became considerably more commonplace and the first ironworks used charcoal-fuelled furnaces. However, there were limited timber resources, meaning this had to change. In England, they quickly shifted to using coal but in Ireland coal resources were very low meaning this was not an option. This forced Irish ironworks, from the late 1700’s onward, to move closer to the ports, as they now had to import their coal from England in order to survive. These ironworks were primarily producing wrought iron, cast-iron and steel. From this stage on it was also becoming more frequent for Irish ironworks to buy in processed iron from British manufacturers. This iron was then re-melted in Irish foundries and used to manufacture instruments and machines. Technological advances soon brought down the price of cast-iron drastically. This in turn, lead to cast-iron being used as a replacement for wood, meaning there was much greater demand for new foundries (McMahon, 2011). By the late 1800’s a new area of industry was beginning to take shape in the form on consumer metals. Metal was manufactured and moulded into household items such as sewing machines, bicycles and cars. Factories to accommodate this industry sprung up all over the UK including Northern Ireland and Ireland. However, the majority of the demand for these products was in the wealthier parts of England, in particular the South. The economies of scale required for the metal goods industry meant that only the firms operating close to this specialised locality of demand (Southern England) would survive, as they had the lowest transport costs. In Belfast, the 1920’s saw a large number of bicycle and motor parts firms close down due to this. In Ireland, it is easy to blame the shortcomings in this sector on the simple fact that the demand was located abroad. There are likely several other reasons as to why the metal products industry grew relatively slowly in the early 20th century compared to England’s. Another factor to consider is the price of coal, which was several times higher in Ireland than many parts of England, especially the mining areas. Coal production only accounted for 3-4 % of production costs however, meaning it was not solely to blame for the lack of growth in Ireland (O’Malley, 1981). Similarly, the argument that there were limited labour resources could be dismissed as Ireland’s firms had access to large amounts of labour and at a low price. One argument, which does hold up, is the possibility that there were not a sufficient number of competent entrepreneurs in the country to carry the industry. It is

speculated that the metal industry in Ireland could have been much more successful over this period with the introduction of some protectionist policies as all of the other countries who industrialised successfully after Britain, in the nineteenth century, used some degree of protection against their main competitors, and Britain itself. In terms of the largest metal-manufacturing firms in Ireland, one of the oldest known foundries was Pierces in Wexford, established in 1839 and which employed over 600 men by 1900. Another big employer was the Mill Road Ironworks in, which employed over 400 in 1911. The largest foundry in Dublin, Hammond Lane foundry was founded in 1902 and by 1913 employed 270 people. One of the biggest foundries outside of Dublin was Drogheda Iron works. They employed over 500 people at one stage and were responsible for the building of many locomotive trains, including one for Liverpool and one for Brazil (Barry, 2015). When looking to compare the size of the metal industry it is best to look at a particular set of figures. Firstly the number of firms, and to be specific the number of large firms (> 100 employees) is very relevant. Then we must look at the total numbers employed in the industry and finally the gross output of the industry. In 1929 there were 65 firms in Ireland who classified themselves as being metal manufacturers. Of these, only 3 had between 100-249 employees and none had more. This large number of small firms was fairly common for most industries in Ireland at this time and it will be interesting to see over the course of my report how this develops, if at all. The 1926 employment figures for the 4 different metal related subsectors (General metal founding and engineering, sheet metal working, manufacture of precious metals, jewellery and plate and other metal industries), totalled 4779 persons. Of these, between 85 and 90% were male. In 1907 the net output of the other metals industry was £226,000, quite small when compared to that of ironworks, engineering and shipbuilding, which saw a net output of almost £3.5 million for the same year. By 1951 the industry had grown considerably and employed 11, 074, 10,094 of which were men. About half (5,072) of all these employed were based in Leinster. In 1953 the output per head was $1,596 dollars, resulting in around $17.6 million in total output (Nevin, 1962).

3.0 – The 1960’s

3.1 - The Irish Economy in the 1960’s The Irish economy expanded greatly in the 1960’s, with Sean Lemass as leader. A large focus was placed on foreign investment and the IDA invested heavily in technology. In 1959 grants were made available for new industries or quickly expanding industries. Up to 50% of plant and machinery costs and up to 100% of building and land costs could be covered by the grants. Tax relief on export profits was introduced, as a part of the government’s dual track reform. This ensured that domestic industries stayed happy while the government also encouraged foreign investment. The finance act of 1956 granted 50% tax remission on profits earned on increases in export sales over the 1956 level, and two years later this was raised to 100%. These acts were completely repealed by a 1964 act, which would see them cease to operate in 1968. The move towards free trade was approached solely in relation to EEC membership initially. However, when Ireland failed to gain membership to the EEC in 1963, tariff reductions of 10% were introduced and another 10% the following year. In 1965 the Anglo Irish Free Trade Agreement was signed which saw free trade between the two nations being introduced gradually (10% per annum) for the next ten years. The 1960’s saw a huge number of IDA programmes and financial incentives being introduced. Grant rates for capital costs went up to 40% in designated areas, and 25% everywhere else. Equipment grants increased to a maximum of 35%. Finally, the 1963 act saw the guaranteeing of loans and research costs of up to 50% or £15,000, whichever was lower. Another measure used to encourage industry was free depreciation on investments. Ireland’s tax relief became a huge draw for many nations and lead Ireland to agreeing on an agreement with many countries prohibiting or limiting taxes in their parent countries on profits of Irish branches of foreign companies. As can be seen, most policy decisions in the 1960’s were extremely pro-industry, and made with knowledge that free trade was likely to become a reality in the near future. The effects that these policies had in can really be seen through the following figures. From 1953 to 1959, the average annual growth rates in the manufacturing sector were as follows: output grew annually at a rate of 2.28% and employment grew annually at a rate of 0.18%. However, from 1959 to 1966 these figures jumped to a 6.29% annual growth rate for output and a 2.75% annual growth rate for employment (O’Malley, 1980). Also from 1960-1970 the percentage of people employed in industry leaped from 22% to 28%, taking mostly from the agriculture sector. Also, over the 10-year period, industry rose from accounting for 28% of GDP in 1960, to 35% in 1970. Lastly, we can analyse just how profound of an effect the policy changes had on the exports industry. In the 1960’s manufactured exports grew at an average annual rate of 16%. They also went from accounting for 19% of total exports in 1960, to 44% of total exports in 1973. Over the next part of my report I will be analysing how much of an effect these policies had on the metal industry and which firms in particular benefited from the policies.

3.2 - Metal Products Industry in the 1960’s:

Despite being a relatively small industry for the first half of the 20th century, by 1960 the metal products industry employed 10,900 people, approximately 5.5% of the entire manufacturing sector as seen in Table 1. The vast majority (69%) of these employees worked for larger firms i.e. those with over 100 employees. This was likely due to the large number of foreign firms who established operations in Ireland in the 1950’s. Only 17 of the 160 firms in the industry were what we call large firms. The average size of firms had increased significantly over the last number of years, averaging 22 employees per firm in 1936 to 60 employees per firm in 1960. Of all those employed around a third (3290) were employed in Dublin. This concentration in Dublin was particularly true was large areas such as iron and steel whose concentration went as high as 50%(Linehan, 1962). The likely reason for this is the necessity to be close to the ports. Many materials required had to be imported and similarly, it was much more convenient to have to transport very heavy products that were to be exported, a smaller distance. Also, this is likely why the second highest concentration (11%) lies in Cork. Within the metal products industry, one of the largest areas was iron and steel, which includes iron and steel structural work, cast iron manufacturers and wire and wire products. With many of the firms in this study, especially the larger ones, there is some crossover as many firms fall into the realms of producing several products, some of which fall outside the category of metal products. This sector imported quite heavily relative to exports. In 1961 they imported £7.1 million worth of materials, leading to an import to export ratio of 18:1(CIO, 1963). Exports represented 4% of total sales. While this may seem small, exports did in fact rise from £2,672 in 1950 to £396,193 in 19611. These figures lead us to believe that port proximity was a huge factor in location due to the reliance on imports. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority (62%) of these imports came from the UK, with the Netherlands being the second largest source. Another reason imports were so high is due to the fact that materials represent a huge cost for most areas within the metal products industry, as high as 50% in some. Large portions of these materials (up to 75%) were not available in Ireland and therefore must be imported from the UK (CIP, 1963). This makes it very difficult for Irish firms to compete on an international scale, as their prices have to be higher to maintain the same margins. In 1965, indigenous firms accounted for 66% of market share in Ireland. The tariff reductions in the industry seemed to have relatively minimal effects on this throughout the whole decade. These figures really indicate that, as suggested by the firms themselves, the reduction in the levels of protection from the U.K. has not had any profound effects on the position of the manufacturers. However, at this stage, manufacturers are still enjoying reasonable levels of tariff protection and this high percentage market share in Ireland will inevitably diminish with the elimination of tariffs under the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement. In 1963 and again in 1964 there was a unilateral reduction of 10% in tariffs. Under the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area

1Census of Industrial Production 1966

Agreement tariffs operating against imports from the United Kingdom were reduced by 10% on 1st July, 1966 and by a further 10% on the 1st July of each year since then. Additional reductions of duty have been made in the case of certain goods imported from Northern Ireland. All duties on goods imported from Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom are due to be eliminated by 1st July, 1975 (CIP, 1970). Imports in the industry totalled £8.7 million by 1965, and this grew to £14 million by 1969, as can be seen in table 1. Based on this drastic increase, there were great calls for the IDA to distribute grants to stimulate import substitution and protect Irish firms somewhat. By 1966 employment within the industry had grown to 13,044, which was a 30% increase from 1961. Despite this, Irish firms still felt as though there were not enough skilled workers in the country to keep up with industry demands. Approximately 53%% of the industry had links with other firms, either by being a subsidiary or being linked by shareholding. Of these firms, most were linked to larger Irish firms with about 29% linked to UK firms and 21% linked to US firms. Those firms who are linked to others account for a disproportionately large amount of sales within the industry with the 53% of firms making up 72% of total sales and 69% of total employment. In 1963 the Committee of Industrial Organisation called for amalgamation between firms and the concentration of production in fewer and larger firms. This advice was certainly taken and later that year Smith and Pearson and J & C Mcloughlin joined to take on one large contract that would have gone to a firm in another country otherwise. Later, in 1967, these two firms along with MacNaughtons " Twisteel " Ltd., *Geo. Milner and Sons Ltd., and Thompson and Sons Ltd. formed the Irish Structural Steel Consortium Ltd. Their aim was to pool resources in order to gain very large contracts that they would not have the capacity to handle alone. Besides structural steel, the Metal Products Group in Cork comprised of 9 firms producing ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It was understood that this cooperation and amalgamation was essential to counteract the effects of upcoming free trade. However, funding would also be extremely beneficial. In order to compete with foreign competition both domestically and abroad, it would be essential for the indigenous firms to modernise. From 1963 onwards the Adaptations Grant Scheme was established to encourage firms to invest in themselves and update their processes. The scheme gave out a total of £1.25 million and primarily provided grants for firms to modernise their premises, plants and machinery. There were also industrial grants, totalling £3 million for the decade, provided to assist smaller firms in their infancy. For medium to large firms a technical assistance grant scheme was established. This scheme allocated consultants to assist these firms with aspects such as management and sales coordination. Lastly, between 1962 and March 1969, grants were allocated to 23 different firms to promote their export sales. In a CIO survey conducted in 1965, 67% of firms claimed that 90% or more of their raw materials were imported, with Britain being the largest source and some firms going so far as Japan to get the materials needed. As part of the survey, these firms were asked why they imported raw materials at such high rates. The general

consensus was not that the quality was poor but that the Irish suppliers were generally unreliable in terms of time delivering goods. Moving forward, technology was a factor that was considered to be underdeveloped in the metal trades industry comparatively. Also, only 15% of firms were conducting market research in 1968 as most smaller firms considered it an unnecessary cost. Under the Industrial Development Act, 1969, the IDA established a research and development grants scheme with a view to raising the level of technology in industry. The grants covered up to 50% of the cost involved and were intended to promote the development by Irish industry of new and improved processes and products and the more effective use of scientists and technologists. In terms of financial performance, the average return on capital employed for all firms in the industry was 10%, around the same as the average for the 50 largest Irish industrial companies quoted on the Dublin Stock Exchange. Also, the average net profit to sales " ratio was around 5%. Based on interest rates and industry conditions this is considered an unsatisfactory rate of return. At the end of the decade most firms (51%) considered their greatest source of competition was to come from the UK. Almost all firms considered increased efficiency and promotion activities the best way to safeguard against this. Moving forward, EEC membership was of great importance and it was widely thought that EEC membership would be advantageous for some firms and disadvantageous for others. The large firms accounting for 60% of sales, 85% of exports and 65% of employment would have greater access to foreign markets, which would be beneficial. Without the cooperation of smaller firms by way of amalgamation or formation of subsidiaries it seemed unlikely that they would survive through the free trade era (CIP, 1970). A large number of mergers and acquisitions also occurred during the 1960’s. A number of mergers took place in the 1958 to 1968 period; Metal Products took over Irish Pioneer in 1960, and in 1968 took over McBrides, Tool Design and Macroom Engineering (the latter two companies having later ceased trading). Heitons took over Ferguson Peacocke in 1965, and Irish Foundries took over Midland Industries in 1966 (but the firms were separated in 1973). Hammond Lane, which had several establishments in this industry, took over Blackrock Engineering in 1968. Sanbra Conex and Fyffe Couplings merged in 1962. Unidare took over Irish Overseals in 1959, and Thomas Pearson in 1966, but was itself taken over by Philips in 1966. Also, in 1963, Unidare and Smith and Pearson formed a joint company, Anodising Ltd. (Restrictive Practices Commission 1978). In 1958 gross output was £31 million pounds and net was £10 million leaving a gross to net ratio of 32%, 4% higher than the industry average. 1968 was best year ever for industrial development with over 120 projects being approved for financial assistance. Metal and engineering sectors accounted for 30% of this (Mcaleese, 1976).

Table 1 - Imports in the Metal Products Industry 1965-1969

Year 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

Imports in £000’s 8,736 9,220 9,961 12,090 14,738

(CIP, 1970)

3.3 - Firm level data for the 1960’s

In 1960 there were 174 firms involved in the metal trades industry. Of these firms we consider 26 of them to be large (over 100 employees). 14 firms had between 100 and 199 employees. 11 firms had between 200 and 499 employees and only 1 had over 500 employees.

Table 2 - Size Structure of firms 1960

Size of firm No. of firms

30-49 22

50-99 20

100 - 199 14

200 - 499 11

500 + 1

Source: Census of Industrial Production 1960

Table 3 - Large firms in the Metal Products Industry in the 1960’s

Name of firm County of firm

Number of employees (year)

I.V.I foundry Kildare 100

Patrick Kelly and company ltd Laois 150

A.P.V - Desco (Ireland) Dublin 12 100

Thomas Pearson and company LTD

Dublin 1 135

Mcloughlin J.C LTD Dublin 2 200

Hammond Lane Foundry Dublin 1,043**

Tonge & Taggart LTD Dublin 2 200

Tonge Mcgloughlin Dublin 400**

Universal Fabricators LTD Dublin 11 120

Metal Products (Cork) LTD Cork 260

Irish Steel Holdings LTD Cork 450**

Templemichael mills Cork 100

Irish Wire Products LTD Limerick 140

Irish Aluminium Company Tipperary 200

Waterford metal Industries Waterford 100

Irish Foundries LTD Cavan 100

Western Iron Company Sligo 48

Newbridge Cutlery Kildare 210

Liebherr Cranes Kerry 180

Smith and Pearson Dublin 3 370**

SPS international Limerick 350

Unidare Ltd Dublin 1000

Thomas Heiton Dublin 300**

Philip Pierce Wexford 260**

*If not 1960 figure, employment figure is for closest possible to 1960 **Including subsidiaries 3.3.1 I.V.I Foundry

IVI foundry was founded in the early 1900’s and began making iron-grey castings on behalf of Ernest Muller KG, a German company in 1935. The company specialised in cast iron but also dealt with aluminium, bronze and brass. In 1960 there were large disputes between the employees, located in Athy and the director of the firm. They demanded a wage increase of 4%. Colonel H. J. Hosie the director of the firm said that, in his opinion, these men were not tradesmen. He denied that his workers were highly skilled pattern makers and said that if he could obtain fully skilled tradesmen, he would dismiss his present workers. He had been unsuccessful in his search. Colonel Hosie said that it was the last thing he would do to employ foreigners but that if the present rates of pay were increased, it would be economically impossible to endeavour to compete with foreign pattern makers (Irish Examiner, 09/08/1960)2. 3.3.2 APV Desco

This firm specialised in custom-built work, primarily stainless steel. Their work could be found in creameries and food processing plants all over the country. They also had a healthy export trade, mainly with Northern Ireland. They were located on the Long Mile Road in Drimnagh and in 1968, they had a turnover of £17 million, up £2 million from the previous year. In 1967 there were fears that the factory in Limerick was gradually being closed down (Irish Examiner, 13/09/1967)3.

The management structure and commercial viability of A.P.V. Desco, the Limerick engineering firm which which had been laying off staff, was investigated by officers of the Department of Industry and Commerce to ascertain if the position is remediable as they struggled massively throughout the decade.

3.3.3Metal Products (Cork) LTD

Metal Products was founded back in 1933 to manufacture nuts and bolts in a small rented factory in Cork's Marina Industrial Estate. The reason for the existence of. the

2http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IEX%2F1960%2F08%2F09&id=Ar00225&sk=2B99417F 3 http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IEX%2F1967%2F09%2F13&id=Ar01213&sk=7557F101

company was of course the Economic War and the consequent prohibitive tariffs placed on imports. With the home market to itself the group expanded and outgrew its original premises, and moved in 1938 into a renovated 32,000 sq. ft. factory, which was the former Cork, Blackrock and Passenger Railway terminus. In November 1940, the company was floated off on the Stock Exchange with a new issue of 16,400 £1 Preference Shares at par. At that time the Group had 150 employees and net assets of only £18,500. From this relatively tiny base, the company grew into one having net assets of £800,000 and 600 employees (Sunday Independent, 21/10/1973)4. In 1967 they were stated as being one of the biggest employers of adult labour in Cork. At this time they were manufacturing under licence from a Scottish firm at their headquarters on the Kinsale Road in Cork. They had 8 different subsidiaries including a Dublin outlet, called Engineering Services LTD. They also had a subsidiary dealing with sales of their products called Metal Products Group Sales LTD (Irish Independent, 17/11/1967). In 1967 the group had an annual turnover of £1,000,000 and employed 550 in total. The chairman was George Crosbie who was director of a number of other companies also (Irish Independent, 18/11/1967)5.

3.3.4 Patrick Kelly and Co Ltd

Patrick Kelly and Co. Ltd. of Portlaoise operated one of the most comprehensive organisations of its type outside Dublin and Cork and the progress and expansion of the firm through the passing years is a striking tribute not only to the high efficiency of the firm, but to the outstanding service given to the public (Irish Press, 15/07/1964)6.

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Employees felt as if they were being severely underpaid and in 1960 the labour court recommended a significant wage increase for adults and juveniles alike (Irish Independent, 29/06/1960)7.

3.3.5 Thomas Pearson and company LTD Thomas Pearson & Co. Ltd. was founded in 1829 and was controlled by the Pearson family until 1903 when it passed into the ownership of Mr Thomas Bagnall. In 1931, the Booth family, through Mr Robert C. Booth, took an interest in the company and controlled its operations up to 1966. The company expanded considerably in the intervening years (Irish Independent, 06/01/1966)8. A merger between Unidare Ltd. and Thomas Pearson and Co. Ltd., manufacturers of steel wire materials, was announced at a reception in the Hibernian Hotel, Dublin, on the 5th of January 1966. The employees of Pearsons were being underpaid compared with those of the parent company and thus demanded wage increases. In 1968 the chairman of the company said that a new factory was being built at Finglas for the workers not yet transferred from North Richmond Street and their wages were set to rise. Thomas Pearson's main raw material was steel, manufactured by Unidare, who had been supplying Thomas Pearson for years (Irish Press, 06/01/1966)9.

3.3.6 Mcloughlin J.C LTD In 1961 the company, who specialised in iron and brass foundry along with art metal work moved premises from Leinster street (Dublin 2) to Inchicore (Dublin 8). Tonge MCloughlin bought all their shares in 1964, along with those of Tonge & Taggart. Pre tax profits for 1968 were £37,335, up from £9,009 the year previous (Irish Examiner, 05/05/1969)10.

7http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1960%2F06%2F29&id=Ar00815&sk=ABE639DF 8http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1966%2F01%2F06&id=Ar00400&sk=56FCDD3C 9http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IPR%2F1966%2F01%2F06&id=Ar00604&sk=A628A5AC 10http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1968%2F12%2F28&id=Ar00216&sk=9751F0F8

An agreement was signed with 'the American firm' of Kawneer enabling the Dublin company to manufacture their items using the famous Kawneer systems for the manufacture of aluminium sashes, curtain wailing and aluminium shop-fronts. The company owner, Mr McGloughlin stated after a meeting held at the Inchicore factory of J and C McGloughlin Ltd, that the other firms in their industry i.e. Dublin manufacturers of church metalwork had also experienced a falling-off in demand and one company had switched some of its potential to the making of silver plate (Irish Independent, 28/04/1967)11. 3.3.7 Tonge & Taggart LTD Amalgamated with Mcgloughlin JC in 1964. Pre tax profits for 1968 were £37,335, up from £9,009 the year previous (Irish Independent, 28/12/1968)12.

3.3.8 Tonge Mcloughlin Pre-tax profits of Tonge McGloughlin (Holdings) Ltd. for the year elided December 31 1966 amounted to £21,499 compared with £58,905 for the previous year. Net profit was £17,982 against £37,925. The holding company's wholly owned subsidiaries are Tonge and Taggart Ltd. (ironfounders), J. and C McGloughlin Ltd. (manufacturers of structural steelwork and art metal craftsmen) and John Smyth and Co. (1961) Ltd. (gold and silversmiths). A final dividend of 4 p.c. was paid on the Ordinary shares, making 8% for 1966. This compared with a total payment of 11% in the previous year. The chairman said that there were definite reasons for the heavy fall in profits. In the first place Tonge and Taggart Ltd. put in a considerable amount of new mechanised moulding plant, built a new machine shop and moved the position of the fettling shop. In carrying out these operations it was Impossible to avoid a considerable upset in production. Furthermore, there was an increase in wages early in the year and the working week was shortened in July, which added greatly to costs. Permission to increase prices was sought in July but this was not granted until November and then not to the extent asked for. J. and C. McGloughlin had similar difficulties. All machinery and plant had to be moved from the Pearse St. premises to the new-Inchicore factory and wage increases and a shorter working week were conceded. A slackening of trade in the building industry affected both firms, causing a drop in sales, making competition keener and margins smaller. In reply to queries by shareholders the Chairman of Tonge McGloughlin (Holdings) Ltd. said that the 11http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1967%2F04%2F28&id=Ar00505&sk=51980834 12http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1968%2F12%2F28&id=Ar00216&sk=9751F0F8

integration of management control in the three companies was being considered and also the feasibility of having fewer boards in the group (Irish independent, 28/04/1967)13.

3.3.9 Hammond Lane foundry There were 1,043 employees in 1966 including the subsidiaries of the firm. Their net output for the same year was £240,000. 12.5% of their sales were exports. In 1969 a trade dispute occurred between employees of the foundry. After a long battle, all employees were given a wage increase, ultimately leading to the detriment of the company. Between 1968 and 1969 sales increased by 20% however total profit for all members of the group decreased by 9%. One subsidiary of the company is Hammond Lane industries, located in Bluebell where they manufactured stainless steel sinks and bed frames. Hammond Lane Ironfounders manufactured home cookers but struggled to compete with foreign competition, who benefited from large advertising campaigns. The Hammond Lane metal company was the most successful of the subsidiaries. They benefited from the increase in domestic demand for scrap metal during the 60’s and also exported a small percentage of their stock. Other subsidiaries included Hammond Lane Transport Company and Irish Industrial Cases, both of whom performed poorly throughout the decade (Irish Examiner, 08/09/1969)14.

3.3.10 Irish Steel Holdings The Cork firm who employed 450 people in 1960 employed an additional 325 by 1968, bringing total employment to 775. For the decade, the company recorded impressive profits of £634,000 in 1968 compared with £381,000 the year before. The average turnover for the company was £4.1 million for the period annually and exports represented 14% of this figure on average for the decade. The company had big plans to expand and in 1968 spent £240,000 on capital expenditure with aims of rapid growth (Irish Independent, 01/11/1968)15.

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3.3.11 Irish Aluminium company

Established in Nenagh in 1934 and changed name to Castle Brand Limited. In 1964 the company experienced total profit of over £100,000. In 1968 three hundred people were employed at Nenagh by the Irish Aluminium Company. Products include aluminium domestic hollowware, including kettles, teapots, frying pans, stewing pans and fish-fryers, light gauge aluminium utensils and a wide variety of all popular cooking utensils. An anodising plant was added in 1968 to the 54,000 square feet main factory building at Nenagh to give an improved acid resistant finish to trays and containers for the food industry (Irish examiner, 30/01/1968)16.

3.3.12 Waterford Metal Industries:

Set up by a group of men in 1949, the company boasted employment of 100 members of staff by 1960. They specialised in galvanised buckets, dust bins and tanks. The 100 workers employed by Waterford Metal Industries who went on strike in May 1967, received through the post from the management their cards and notice terminating their employment. The notice advised them that if they wished to seek re-employment they should do so in writing and their applications would receive due consideration. The workers went on official strike in support of a claim by the galvanising and cutting sections for an increase in their differentials (Irish Examiner, 24/05/1967)17.

3.3.13 Liebherr Cranes

The German-owned crane firm situated in Killarney employed 350 hands in 1960. In the same year, a lightning strike by 13 welders almost resulted in closure of the factory but replacements for the welders were soon found. In 1961 a strike occurred due to the dismissal of ten employees whose places were to be taken by ten men who became redundant at the Hotel Europe when the work of building the- hotel finished. By 1968 there were 500 people employed at the firm and the Company looked forward to a big business in the future in container crane manufacture. Liebherr were also working on the biggest order for cranes they have ever received. This order costing in the region of £50,000 was, given by the E.S.B. for their generating station at Pigeon House. And one crane was delivered in June of 1969.

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The crane company also owned three hotels in the Killarney region (Kerryman, 16/03/1968)18.

In 1967 Liebherr aimed to double their production for the 1970’s through expansion worth 375,000 dollars. They produced cranes solely for export to the Commonwealth countries and the U.S.A (Irish Examiner, 24/08/1967)19.

3.3.14 Templemichael Mills

This firm based in Templemichael produced primarily hand and garden tools. About 60% of their raw materials were imported and exports accounted for a significant percentage of total sales, a reason the owners travelled to London annually to display their products at the International Hardware trades fair. The Cork firm, who employed 100 members of staff in 1960, was taken over and given a £1 million expansion by American firm True Temper, in September 1966. The firm continued as Templemichael Mills, and marketed its products under the old brand name. But they had at their disposal the giant marketing division of True Temper Corporation, which was based in Ohio. The corporation had a big share of the North American market for farm implements and other steel products, with big outlets in Europe, Africa and Commonwealth territories. The Corporation had been in existence since 1937 and had over 6,000 employees. Sales for 1965 totalled more than £20 million. Templemichael Mills were acquired by Messrs. Dwyer and Co. in the 1940's and in 1964 more than £100,000 was spent on an expansion that also employed 10 additional men.

3.3.15 Newbridge Cutlery: The well-known Irish firm, renamed Newbridge Silverware in the 1990’s struggled somewhat in the 1960’s. The company had begun to master the difficulties which had beset it since 1962. However, they recorded a loss of £4,954 in spite of a sales increase of £11.000, or 5 p.c. in 1967. New machinery had been installed in the Newbridge factory that year and 20 employees had been declared redundant at the same time (Irish Independent, 19/12/1967)20.

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In 1966 the firm employed 210 and in the same year they won a contract to supply the three Irish Intercontinental hotels in Limerick, Dublin and Cork with all their cutlery in an exclusive design. In 1968, Price and Newbridge Cutlery joined forces to form a new company called Arthur Price Newbridge International. The agreement was significant for both companies as Price was strong in modern cutlery designs while Newbridge had specialised in more traditional Vines. Newbridge imported blanks from Price for finishing and it also exported more of its products through Price’s international sales organisation (Irish Examiner, 18/12/1968)21.

3.3.16 Western Iron Company The company that employed 48 members of staff in 1966 was forced to close down in the same year. A spokesman for the Company said that the reason for the closure was that the market for the products of the foundry was declining. The Company, in which the Hammond Lane Foundry Company Ltd., Dublin, held an interest, were manufacturers of rainwater goods, gates, manhole covers and frames and cast iron hollow ware. The Sligo foundry started production in April 1935, had been in operation continuously ever since except for brief close-down periods during the years of World War II when there were shortages of raw materials. The Company's products were marketed throughout the Republic and in addition it also had markets in the Six Counties (Sligo champion, 06/05/1966)22.

3.3.17 SPS international S.P.S. International, a subsidiary of Standard Pressed Steel of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, was established at Shannon in 1960. The company was engaged in the manufacture of precision fasteners for use in the aircraft and similar industry and tools. From the time of establishing at Shannon the company went through several stages of expansion and in 1967 they employed 350 workers. Another plant in Galway went into production in early 1967 (Limerick leader, 13/08/1966)23.

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S.P.S. International Ltd, said that the advantages of doing business internationally from the Shannon area plus a good long range business picture for Ireland, had greatly influenced the company's decision to move here. In co-operation with the Shannon Free Airport Development Co. Ltd., and the Irish Industrial Development Authority, S.P.S. they constructed a 50.000 square foot factory (Irish independent, 10/05/1960)24.

3.3.18 Smith and Pearson Just prior to the decade, the firm was undergoing a huge slump averaging sales of £200,000 per year in 1957. From 1968 onwards their sales increased dramatically to £1.4 million per year and they were one of the top 5 employers in the iron and steel industry. Among the major projects they worked on was an industrial complex in Derry by the group's structural steel division, whose expertise were also employed on the large tobacco factory at Dundalk for P. J. Carroll & Co. (Irish Independent, 14/05/1968)25.

3.3.19 Irish Wire Products

The Limerick based firm who employed 140 in 1960 joined with the Pall Corporation of New York in 1962 to form a company, which would set up a factory at Shannon Airport for the manufacture of wire filters for aircraft and pharmaceutical industries. The managing director of Irish Wire Products Ltd., said that in the first year 170 people would be employed and they expected this figure to roach 500 in three years. They planned to export £1,000,000 worth of goods per year. These would go to the U.S., Europe and the British Commonwealth. Raw materials would come from Britain, West Germany, the U.S. and Sweden (Irish examiner, 22/09/1962)26.

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The company continued their progress in 1966, with profits before tax rising to £81,403, versus £63,389 in the previous year. Net profits came out at £47,788, as compared with the 1965 net of £36,639 (Irish Press, 06/07/1966)27.

3.3.20 Unidare

From a base of £210,000 in 1947, capital employed in the business grew to £1.7 million in 1960. It stood at £3.9 million at the beginning of 1970, a jump of 130% in a decade. The actual total assets of the group in 1970 were £8.3 million, making it one of the largest companies in Ireland. The introduction of the British import levy cost £90,000 in 1965, £117,000 in 1966 and £53,000 in 1967. Before this the company had made a record profit of £352,000, a level that was not reached again until 1969. Unidare were a highly competitive international business and the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement meant an increasing amount of pressure on the domestic market. The company developed away from dependence on the Irish market by expanding its exports. In 1969 these amounted to several million pounds and accounted for a substantial portion of total sales. In 1966, they were the 7th biggest company on the Irish stock exchange (Sunday independent, 06/09/1970)28. Unidare had many subsidiaries including; Lyte Aluminium Ltd., which manufactured and distributed aluminium ladders, fire escapes and other alumialuminium products; Anodising Ltd., which specialised in the anodising colour process of aluminium products; Oerlikon Electrodes Ltd., the only firm in Ireland who manufactured arc-welding electrodes for the engineering industry, Spanform (Dublin) Ltd., which manufactured and distributed self shuttered structural flooring Systems; Telecommunications Ltd., which produced and sold Pye radio communication equipment; Thos. Pearson and Co. Ltd., which manufactured reinforcing bars and mesh and Unidare Limited, the parent company which produced and distributed a range of products that ran from huge transformer units for the ESB to aluminium cooking foil for the housewife (Irish Press, 23/02/1972)29.

3.3.21 Thomas Heiton and Co.

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Thomas Heiton and Co. Ltd., in 1967 joined with McFerran and Guilford Ltd. builders' to make them Dublin's second largest group of builders' providers. The new firm, named Heiton McFerran Ltd. was a Dublin based firm and was incorporated as a public company in May 1965. Its business was mainly as fuel merchants, builders' providers and wholesale distributors. The company owned a percentage of the voting Ordinary capital of Booth Poole and Co., Ltd., motor vehicle assemblers and distributors and in addition a minority interest was acquired for cash in Smiths Potato Crisps (Ireland) (Irish Independent, 25/01/1965)30.

3.3.22 Philip Pierce

The firm of Philip Pierce and Co., noted for the manufacture of agricultural implements, was founded in 1839 by Kilmore-born James Pierce who invented the Pierce fire fan. The business expanded rapidly and eight years later he moved to the 20-acre site where the factory still stood throughout the 60’s (Irish Independent, 29/01/1965)31. In 1969 the firm was employing 260 people, up 35 from the year before. In the same year, the firm was backed by an internationally experienced management team, a sophisticated marketing organisation and a design team, which produced market, orientated products for the ancillary agricultural machinery trade (Irish Independent, 18/06/1969)32.

Summary

From my research on the 1960’s there were obvious signs of an international influence beginning to play a role in the sector, most notably SPS international. More traditional firms such as foundries struggled and some closed, including Western Iron Company. This decrease in demand compounded with the sub-sectors high ratio of materials cost to total cost, lead to many traditional firms struggling. These firms, particularly steel and iron manufacturers were reluctant to invest in marketing and research & design. These foundries and large manufacturers, who were typically big 30http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1965%2F01%2F25&id=Ar00400&sk=06BDDB37 31http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1965%2F01%2F29&id=Ar00110&sk=4C003C9D 32http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1969%2F06%2F18&id=Ar01502&sk=BCA9A616

employers in Ireland, ended the 1960’s lagging behind their international competitors, mainly from Germany and the UK. To compound these factors, there was a large influx of foreign firms who were established over the period, mostly through acquisitions and mergers. The new foreign industries I refer to below are defined as foreign firms established in Ireland any time after 1955. Throughout the 60’s they took up an increasing % of overall employment growing 11% in total between 60 and 69. These firms benefited massively by industry grants provided specifically to new foreign firms to improve the export orientation of the industry. If the issues of the traditional indigenous firms were not remedied, the 1970’s could leave many to closure. The incoming trade agreements would have a large effect on the industry. The large firms accounting for 60% of sales, 85% of exports and 65% of employment would have greater access to foreign markets, which would be beneficial. Unlike with some industries however, there was little lobbying and fear of the marketplace without protection. Most firms seemed aware that adapting was necessary. Without the cooperation of smaller firms by way of amalgamation or becoming subsidiaries of others, it seemed unlikely that they would survive through the free trade era (CIO, 1970). Next I am going to discuss the sector between the years 1970 and 180. The graph below illustrates the size structure of firms at the beginning of the decade, which we can later contrast and compare with the size structure of firms in the 1970’s

Figure 1 – Size structure of firms 1960

(Census of Industrial Production 1960) 4.0 - The 1970’s 4.1 - The Irish Economy in the 1970’s The Irish economic performance in the 1970’s can be boiled down to a specific few factors. In 1968 Charlie Haughey announced that Ireland was going to move towards decriminalisation. This process took a lot of time and money, costing Ireland around £120,000. Most notable of all, Ireland, after several failed attempts, joined the EEC in 1973. In May 1972 more than 80% of the population voted in favour of joining the EEC. The industry, which most feared entry to the EEC was the motor assembly industry. After entry to the EEC, focus moved towards the Common Agricultural Policy. The oil crisis from 1973 to 1974 had an effect on Ireland, like all nations. Inflation sky-rocketed and a global depression ensued. However, fortunately for Ireland, Marathon found some natural gas off the coast of Kinsale. Searching for the oil meant a lot of employment for Irish residents. In 1969 inflation was at 7.4% and by 1973 it had climbed to 11.4%. This rose to 17% in 1974 and over 20% in 1975. On the brink of hyperinflation, the figures slowly regressed until the public spending binge by Jack Lynch and Martin O’donoghue from 1977 onwards. From 1978 to 1980, the exchequer borrowing requirement averaged 14%, 4% higher than the years prior. Martin O’donoghue, the minister for economic planning and development was held largely responsible for this. Since 1826 Ireland had been tied to Sterling. That changed however, in 1979, when Ireland joined the European monetary system,

and Britain did not. Initially Ireland stayed tied to Sterling but when UK currency rose, the Irish pound split with Sterling for the first time in 153 years. By mid 1979 we were down to 89p per pound Sterling. In terms of industry, a number of measures were introduced to encourage growth. The service industry programme was introduced in 1973 to encourage non-manufacturing, or service firms, which either secure business outside Ireland while creating jobs here or else provide jobs in services, which were previously imported. In 1979 a special scheme was arranged whereby commercial banks provide loans of up to £25,000 for firms involved in the small industry programme (O’Malley, 1980). The joint venture unit was set up in 1973 to encourage the growth of domestic firms through partnership arrangements with foreign companies. In 1976, De Meirleir conducted a study, which concluded that Ireland had the most attractive incentive package for small capital and labour intensive plants and one of the most attractive for large plants. Between 1966 and 1973 Ireland’s Volume of output grew annually at a rate of 6.76%. Employment levels also grew steadily at 2.18% per year. However, after we joined the EEC in 1973 Volume of output decreased to only 3.61% growth per year from 1973 to 1977 and employment actually regressed, at a growth rate of -1.63% per year (Business and FInance, 2015). The following year however these figures changed drastically with volume of output growing at a level of 8.1% and employment at a rate of 2.6%. Unsurprisingly, there was a switch from agricultural employment to industry and services. As a percentage of total employment, agriculture decreased from 25% to 19% over the course of the decade and industry employment grew from 28% to 29%. Agriculture accounted for 16.4% of GDP in 1970 but by 1979 this had slipped to 14.5%. Industry however, while accounting for 35.6% of GDP in 1970, accounted for 38% of GDP in 1979.

4.2 - Sector study 1970’s The metal trades industry experienced steady growth overall throughout the 1960’s. The gross output overall saw an annual increase from £31 million to £59 million, a rise of 90%. However, the Republic of Ireland had one of the highest rates of protection in Europe and indubitably with the highest rate of the present member countries of the EEC. The manufacturing sector of the Republic of Ireland was particularly heavily protected. The average nominal tariff on industrial goods in 1966 was estimated at 25 per cent and effective protection rates were much higher still, averaging 79 per cent. Over the course of this sector segment I will analyse the quite immediate effects EEC membership gave to Ireland in regards to their metal products industry. The metal products industry was not particularly set up to attract foreign investment. Economies of scale tend to be relatively insignificant, so most firms are only small to medium-size and industry structures are generally quite fragmented. Technology is relatively low as is the level of skill of those employed (O’Malley, 1987). Between 1973 and 1980 the industry saw average annual growth of only 0.9%, substantially lower than the manufacturing average of 4.6%. In 1971 15,700 were employed in the metal products industry and by 1975 this had increased to 18,100, as seen in Figure 7. By the end of the decade this was up to 21,200. Manufacturing overall experienced job losses of 65,356 but an overall net

employment increase of 5242 between 73 and 80. The main reason for this is the new overseas firms who established themselves during the time. However, as we’ve seen this was not the case for the metal industry as most business is generally done locally with smaller firms. Also, during the 70’s Ireland’s exporting to the UK grew steadily in the metal products sector. In 1966, Irish exports accounted for 5.8% of the UK imports in the industry. By 1978, this had increased to 7.2%, on a very similar scale to that of the rest of the manufacturing sector. The location of the metal products sector was much unchanged from the decade previous. Approximately 40% of the employment in the industry was located in Dublin and 55% overall in Leinster and another 33% in Cork and the surrounding areas33. The firms outside of these areas were smaller and didn’t have the need to be so close to the ports as they were predominantly providing products for other firms and individuals who were located around them. Notably, Carlow and Clare had the most employees outside of these locations. Interestingly, the great majority of the foreign firms in the industry were extremely new to Ireland. In 1970 31% of total employment in the metal products industry belonged to these new foreign firms. By 1979, this had grown to 42% of the industry employees working for these new foreign firms, as can be seen in Figure 4. The term new foreign industry refers simply to all foreign owned subsidiaries or companies, which commenced production in 1955 or after. The overwhelming majority of these firms were grant-aided by the IDA , either through the "new industry" grants programme or other grants schemes (O’Hearn, 1987).

Directly after EEC membership, Between 1973 and 1980 the industry saw average annual growth of only 0.9%, substantially lower than the manufacturing average of 4.6%. Figure 7 shows the % share of the engineering sector each industry had compared with the EEC average. The processing of metals sector was considerably smaller than the EEC average accounting for just 0.67% of manufacturing employment versus 4.72% for the EEC average for 1979. However, the manufacture of metal articles industry accounted for 11.36% of the manufacturing overall employment. In Ireland the manufacture of metal articles sector was by far the largest of these industries and attributed for more than 54% of the overall metals and engineering industries in terms of employment for this year (O’Malley, 1987). The metals sector in Ireland tends to be highly polarised. At one end of the scale are numerous very small companies, mostly Irish owned, which serve a mainly local rather than national market. This localisation, along with the service element and customer relationship involved in much of their business, makes the Single European Market of little direct relevance to such firms. There may be some change in their source of supply, and they may have to adjust themselves to some new agencies and products, but their essential business will be little affected. What matters most to these small firms, many supplying products to the building industry, is the performance of the Irish economy as a whole and the construction sector in

33Census of Industrial Production 1971

particular. At the other end of the spectrum are the firms already well established in the export trade. These include most of the foreign-owned firms in the sector as well as a considerable number of Irish companies. They were mostly medium sized firms, although a few were fairly large by Irish standards. These firms primarily served export markets, rather than export their marginal output once the domestic market has been satisfied. Moreover, they tend to serve niche markets, where economies of scale are of less importance (O’Malley, 1989). Another piece of evidence here is the fact that exports of the Manufacture of Metal Articles sector amounted to just 29 per cent of gross output in 1979. In Manufacture of Metal Articles, however, indigenous firms accounted for 70 per cent of employment in 1973 rising to 77 per cent in 1985, so that the output trend there would largely reflect indigenous activity. In the Manufacture of Metal Articles sub-sector, output grew by 7.0 per cent a year in the period 1973-80, which was greater than tile average industrial growth rate of 4.3 per cent. In 1973 employment by indigenous firms very similar to that of foreign: 51% indigenous. By 1980, foreign firms employed greater numbers overall 54% foreign. In addition, the Metals industry internationally has experienced significant upheavals. In the developed market economies, volume of production fell by 18 per cent between 1973-83. Overall industry was growing significantly in developing economies where there was a great requirement for materials for building. In developing economies between 1973 and 1983 volume of production rose by 73%. The increased employment rates in the industry for the decade, even with the increase in competition from EEC membership was attributed to the strong increases in domestic demand. In a context of low export orientation and rising import penetration, strong domestic demand had been a necessary condition for growth in indigenous engineering (O’Malley, 1987). During the period there were also a substantial number of mergers and acquisitions. Masser took over Allied lronfounders, changing its name to Waterford Ironfounders in 1969, and this firm was taken over by Tonge McGloughlin in 1974: Ward took over Sandersons (hacksaws) in 1971, and in 1972 Kilkenny Products took over Wellington Engineering and Glensyde Industries: but all were taken over by Braids in 1973. Metal Products (Cork) took over Eamonn P. Murphy and Son and Murco Environmental in 1973. Newbridge Holdings, however, disposed of its interests in Newbridge Cutlery and Irish Cutlery in 1971 and 1972 respectively (Restrictive Practices Commission 1978).

4.3 – Firm Level data for the 1970’s

Table 4 - Size Structure of firms 1975

Size of firm No. of firms

50 - 99 43

100 - 199 26

200 - 499 8

500 + 2

Source: Census of Industrial Production 1975

Table 5 - Large firms in the Metal Products Industry in the 1970’s

Name of firm Employees

I.V.I foundry 130

A.P.V - Desco (Ireland) 100

Keenan Brothers 120

Metal Products (Cork) LTD 127

Irish Steel Holdings LTD 450**

Templemichael mills 110

Tonge Mcgloughlin 207

Irish Wire Products LTD 300 **

Irish Aluminium Company 178

Waterford metal Industries LTD 94

Thomas Thompson and Co. LTD 250

Newbridge Cutlery 250

Liebherr Cranes 350

Tubex Ireland LTD 130

SPS international 250**

Ridge Tool 300

Smith and Pearson 530**

Thomas Brooks 265**

Philip Pierce 173

Irish Wire Products 300

*If not 1970 figure, employment figure is for closest possible to 1970 **Including subsidiaries

4.3.1 - APV Desco Received a large contracted from Henry Balfour in 1978. They had worked together with this company previously on the brewhouse extension of the Guinness factory only 4 years earlier (Irish Examiner, 19/01/1978)34. In 1974 they emerged as the biggest suppliers of the Wedholm bulk milk tanks for installation on dairy farms to link with the creamery bulk collection service (Irish Independent, 08/10/1974)35. A.P.V. Desco (Ireland) Ltd. formed a new industrial division in addition to the existing fabrication division in Dublin and dairy food division in Limerick, and acquired five internationally recognised agencies. The industrial division was geared to service the rapidly expanding chemical and pharmaceutical Industries in Ireland, distinct from Desco's traditional association with the dairy and brewing industries (Irish Examiner, 07/02/1978)36. 4.3.2 - Metal Products In 1973 Metal Products (Cork) Ltd., significantly expanded its interests by merging its business, in with three private growth-orientated companies. In doing this, it completely changed its investment status, which was really beginning to suffer from a poor trading performance. It now looked like the enlarged group was likely to prosper

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in the future. Throughout the 70’s they faced many difficulties, presented primarily by inflation and control on margins, however (Sunday independent, 21/10/1973)37. In 1977 unofficial picketing of the Metal Products (Cork) Ltd. premises at Albert Road, Cork, took place by 21 former employees who were in dispute with the company over a pension scheme. They invested heavily in research and development in 1972 and also saw a 20.3% increase in pre-tax profits for the same year (Irish Press, 04/08/1972)38. 4.3.3 - IVI foundry Around £1.1 million was spent on a modern engineering castings foundry in Athy, Co. Kiidare in which IVI Foundry in Athy, the German firm of Ernest Mueller KG, and the industrial Development Authority became partners. The IDA approved grants thought to be around £500,000, for the project and their authority took a 40 per cent equity stake in the venture. The project didn’t initially involve any increase in employment but it modernised IVI's existing foundry at Athy; where 130 people were employed. These jobs were maintained and a second shift was envisaged from 1978 (Irish Press, 16/09/1976)39. 4.3.4 - Tonge Mcloughlin The decade started out with a £69,230 profit in 1970 into a loss of £34,627 in 1971 A preliminary statement from the company in 1971 said that the group had a "most unsatisfactory" first half and the poor performance carried through into the second six months. The chairman blamed price control in its foundry division, allied to production stoppages as a result of the E.S.B. strike and an unofficial stoppage of the Tonge workforce earlier in the year, as being directly responsible for the poor year. They purchased Waterford Ironfounders in 1979 (Irish Examiner, 07/12/1972)40.

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In a list collected in 1973 the company was ranked as the 82nd largest firm in the country (Sunday Independent, 28/05/1972)41.

4.3.5 - Hammond Lane foundry In 1970 at the Annual General Meeting, the chairman of Hammond Lane Foundry group made an announcement regarding the poor performance of the group as a whole. He blamed much of this on poor market conditions but primarily on one member of the group, Hammond Lane ironfounders, who had contributed very largely to the group’s success in years gone by. Sales decreased from £7.2 million to £6.8 million during the year and exports decrease from 12% of total sales to 11%. In reality, it was the original member of the group and largest member that was recording the worst performance figures. In 1971, the firm who employed 170 people and was located in Pearse street was debating whether or not complete closure was the best option for the group. In October of 1973 the foundry itself was closed down leading to 190 redundancies. The foundry had been incurring losses since 1966, of between £20,000 and £40,000 annually. The Pearse Street premises were sold for £250,000. When the company closed, a large portion of the employees striked, not on the closure of the company but on their redundancy packages. After months of delegation, they eventually were paid in full, provided through the sale of the premises (Irish Independent, 05/09/1973)42. 4.3.6 - Irish Steel Holdings Irish steel holdings embarked on a £3 million expansion of its Haulbowline, Co. Cork, works in 1970 in order to meet expected demand for its products from 1972 onwards. The chairman of the company, Sarsfield Hogan. said in his annual report that the full sum would be met from cash and credit availabilities. The bulk of the £3 million which was expended in modernising the existing works went on increasing its capacity on a new Electric Arc Furnace and its ancillary equipment, which increased the annual ingot output of the works to between 153000 and 130000 per annum. The chairman stated that he was extremely excited at the prospect of joining the EEC as it would

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mean that the Germans, from whom they receive much of their scrap metal, would have to sell them the metal at the same price as their native customers. In 1970 75% of the raw material was native scrap and the remainder imported. In the year 1970 the company's turnover increased by almost 8 % to £5.6 million, though its trading profit took a dip to £674,000 from the previous year's record £747,000, a figure which the chairman warned at the time could not be repeated in the year under review due to steeply rising costs (Irish Examiner, 20/11/1970)43. In 1979 The Dail passed the Irish Steel Holdings Ltd. (Amendment) Bill 1979, whose objective was to increase the authorised share capital of Irish Steel Holdings Ltd., Haulbowline, Cork, from £6 million to £25 million. The Bill also raised the ceiling of borrowings, which were guaranteed by the Minister from £3 million to £60 million (Irish Examiner, 22/06/1979)44

4.3.7 - Irish Aluminium company

The company which employed 178 persons in 1978 launched a range of high quality copper cookware known as "Fireglow" on the home and export markets in the same year. Manufacturing methods were then developed using new technology for the production of this type of product. The cost of this design and development work approved grant assistance under the IDA's Product and Process Development Grant Scheme (Nenagh Guardian, 15/07/1978)45. The company that once employed 220 people only employed 150 in 1976. The company did not progress in any way throughout the decade and experienced losses for many of the years including 1976 when they recorded a £6,065 loss. 4.3.8 - Waterford Metal Industries

The company struggled throughout the decade and in 1970, were forced to make 25 members of staff redundant. This was primarily due to the import of Polish buckets to the country, which the company was unable to compete with. The buckets were

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not allowed into England at all. The Polish buckets, despite a 56 per cent import duty, were being Imported at less than the cost of raw material of Waterford Metal Industries. The company and the union made representations to the department of Industry and Commerce and to the Anti Dumping Commission to have the duty on the Polish buckets increased (Irish Press, 17/01/1970)46.

4.3.9 - Liebherr Cranes

In 1978 the company laid off 70 members of staff due to the company not having enough work for the employees to do, with no new orders at all in September of that year. There were about 350 employed on the floor, meaning one in five would be made redundant. Mr. Lynch, the company owner, said the company have quotations out all over the world for cranes, seeking orders, but to date no orders have come in, and they are now completing work, on hands. An indication that things were not running smoothly at the factory was given a month prior when short time was introduced for about 140 personnel. Explaining the lack of orders, Mr Lynch said that the telephone and telex dispute had hit the factory very badly, and they were unable to keep in contact with prospective customers and quite possibly lost orders during the period, of the strike. He said there was also a slump in the world market, which was not helping the Killarney company. In a list collected in 1971, they were the biggest employer in Kerry, seconded by Fry Cadbury (Kerryman, 15/09/1978)47.

4.3.10 – Thomas Thompson and Son LTD

In 1978 Thomas Thompson employed a total of 250 people in Ireland and the U.K. Of this total, 175, chiefly men, were employed in Carlow. The company had been an important part of Carlow since 1878. One of Ireland's leaders in structural steel, the company has over the years spread into other fields of activity; crushed limestone at Ballyellen Works and the manufacture and distribution of truck bodies and tipping gears. Thompsons were involved in a very basic way with the development of modern Ireland. The firm helped construct the Sugar Company factory in Carlow and, in the early days of Bord na Mona, much of the turf harvesting machinery was developed and built by Thompsons. In the 70’s, as part of the Structural Steel

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Consortium, Thompsons were involved in such massive projects as Cement's Platin factory and the ESB generating station at Tarbert. In the export field, Thompsons were concerned with the provision of storage facilities for the East African Harbour-Commissioners at Dar-Es-Salaam and Mombasa. A long association with trucks (Thompsons were the Irish agents for Seddon / Atkinson and they have these premises at Thompsons, Naas Road Truck Centre) ensured that the tipping gears and bodies produced were ideal for Irish conditions. The popularity of these products was such that Thompsons decided to introduce them to the UK market and a company was set up in Britain with premises in Surrey. Success in the UK promoted a sales promotion programme in Europe, which began early 1975 with encouraging results. In 1975 Thompsons developed a new all-steel monocoque truck body, which gave increased strength, and a weight saving of 11% over conventional bodies. In 1977 a joint venture between engineering firm Thomas Thompson and a publicly quoted British firm meant 270 new jobs for Carlow. The new company was located on the local industrial estate and manufactured hydraulic tipping gears for commercial vehicles and hydraulic loading firms in America. The project, employing 270 persons at full production operated for its first year from Thompson's existing Hanover Works at Carlow, while the IDA constructed the first phase of its new premises (Irish Press, 24/11/1977)48.

4.3.11 - Templemichael mills

The True-Temper Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio (owners of Templemichael mills), were one of the world's largest manufacturers of garden, farm and industrial tools, etc., with plants in the U.S.A., Canada and Latin America. The plant at Templemichael for True-Temper was modern. It covered 70,000 sq. ft. and it was built to support an export drive to the countries of the British Commonwealth and the European Common Market. The products of the firm, which include garden tools, shovels, rakes, hoes, etc., were exported to markets in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, West Germany and Holland, while it continued to service the entire Republic of Ireland (Irish Examiner, 13/05/1972)49. 4.3.12 - Newbridge Cutlery:

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In November 1970 Newbridge Cutlery acquired a British firm named Matilda Street Holdings, based in Honsley, Sheffield. Newbridge Cutlery's main stock in trade was electro and silver plate ranges with some quality stainless steel ware while the Honsley plant in Sheffield was mainly involved in finishing. The Irish plant continued to operate much as before. It was planned that the Honsley plant would do all the finishing of products for the British market. The Sheffield name, it was hoped, would do much to help marketing (Irish Press, 06/11/1970)50. In 1971, Newbridge Holdings, owner of Newbridge Cutlery, sold Newbridge Cutlery due to their poor performance. The firm was sold to a group of Irish businessmen for £375,000. The basic problem of the cutlery operation in Ireland was the general state of the market, which was growing but heavy overheads, associated with the costly production process, made profitability difficult. At this time, they employed over 250 (Irish Examiner, 03/12/1971)51.

4.3.13 - Keenan Brothers LTD:

Keenan Brothers Limited was a long-established and successful Company whose activities included agricultural, engineering and structural steel fabrication. Its wholly owned subsidiaries, The Sherrard Group of Companies extended these activities to the distribution of a comprehensive range of agricultural and horticultural machinery in Ireland. The company experienced rapid growth throughout the 70’s and employed 120 people in 1972 (Irish independent, 24/02/1978)52. 4.3.14 - Ridge Tool The Ridge Tool Company was founded over 50 in the 1920’s, famous for their first product of the being the famous “Ridgid” heavy-duty wrench. In 1979, the Ridge Tool Company was the world's largest pipe tool manufacturer. Products included wrenches, threaders, pipe cutters and reamers, vices, power drives and accessories,

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pipe and drain cleaning equipment. The plant in Cork was involved in assembly and machining, making over 300 different Ridgid products. They prided themselves on offering quality of product and quality of employment (Irish Examiner, 31/08/1979)53. The factory started production in the summer of 1972. The first phase of the development involved 300 jobs, and the final plans were for a 500 man factory. The owner of Ridge Tool, Emerson Electric ranked 147th in the Fortune league of the 500 largest American companies. It employed nearly 40,000 people, with sales in 1978 of 1.5 billion dollars (Irish Examiner, 18/02/1978)54. 4.3.15 - SPS International An American Steel Company established in Ireland in 1960, SPS International, which manufactured rivets and bolts used in space ships and jet aircraft in January 1971 announced that 52 workers in the Tipperary plant were to become redundant. This was the second big lay off within the factory in 6 months as in the previous July 70 became redundant which was left with a workforce of 250, about half the number originally employed when the plant first opened in the early sixties. A spokesman for the company, which had its headquarters in Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania, said that they could not see any upturn in business for the year (Irish Examiner, 22/01/1976)55. In 1970 the firm had the second biggest market share, after Metal Products Cork, for the manufacture of steel components. However, they manufactured almost purely for export, while the Cork firm sold most of their products domestically. The Galway plant exported 95 % of its production back to the U.S. but the recession there led them to attempt to extend into the European market. They underwent something of a slump period through the 70’s with competition on the world market being fairly intense particularly from Japanese producers (Irish Press, 03/07/1970)56.

4.3.16 - Tubex Ireland LTD

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Tubex Ltd was taken over in December 1978 by Tubex Gmbh, Germany, by coincidence a company with the same name. The German company were the leading tube manufacturers in Europe and also produced aerosols, cans, plastic tubes and extruded aluminium products. The Irish firm manufactured plastic and aluminium tubing for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics businesses. Besides having three tube factories in Germany, it also had a plant in Switzerland. This move into Ireland was prompted by the recognition of the favourable economic climate in Ireland with a rapidly developing packaging sector. The German investment in Ireland amounted to £2 million with half of this going to new high-speed equipment designed to improve quality and output. The remainder of this investment went towards improving buildings and staff facilities. Tubex Ireland before the expansion employed 75 people, an increase of 15 since the change of ownership. The company planned to recruit another 55 with the expansion and had 130 members of staff by 1981 (Nenagh Guardian, 20/10/1979)57. 4.3.17 - Smith and Pearson Despite the firm’s stellar performance throughout the 60’s, the first warning signals came in July 1974, when financing arrangements were completed with state rescue body Foir Teoranta for a ten-year loan. The group ran into the red two years prior and were supported by the substantial borrowings. Its workforce was chopped from 533 to 240 and it reported a loss of just under £150,000 in the year to June, 1977. A further deficit of £54,500 was incurred in the six months to December 1977. The group hadn’t paid a dividend since 1973. In its 1977 balance sheet, Smith & Pearson had borrowings of over £1m against shareholders of Smith and Pearson (Irish Press, 1978)58. In 1978 the firm’s receiver, organised for the firm’s architectural design products division to be taken over by a group. This operation, employing around 130 people, made aluminium and steel windows, as well as ornamental and security fencing (Irish Press, 27/10/1978)59.

4.3.18 - Irish Wire Products

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The Limerick firm who employed 300 in 1970 saw a huge spike in raw material shortages, particularly an inability to get sufficient steel supplies, restricted output to all Irish Wire Products Ltd. production lines. Irish Wire turned in a 16 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in 1972, which after a higher tax charge came out at a 4 per cent rise in profit after tax. Earnings per share rose from 9.4% to 9.8%. The firm’s owners were critical of the high tax being levied on industry particularly at a time when they were faced with increased working capital requirements because of the soaring cost of raw materials (Irish Independent, 12/08/1974)60. In 1978 they were prevented from earning improved profits due to tough competition from overseas, and were forced to concentrate on improving productivity and modernising their existing facilities, so as to be able to take full advantage of any upturn in the market (Irish Press, 12/10/1979)61. 4.3.19 – Unidare

Throughout the 70’s, Unidare, one of Ireland’s largest firms and biggest employers experienced a large number of wage disputes and strikes. In 1971 a large strike occurred due to redundancies. The firm employed 1248 in 1972. Unidare, whose major shareholders were Philips Electrical with 51% and Alcan Aluminium with 25% forged ahead in the export market throughout the decade, notably to the Middle East and Africa. Exports accounted for 27% of total orders in 1975. The home market, where the Electricity Supply Board were a big customer, was a different matter. Electricity demand failed to grow and sales of cables and transformers lagged. The expansion of the telephone service another big sales outlet helped but overall demand was weak (Irish Press, 23/02/1972)62.

The latter half of the decade was much improved for the Finglas based company, in terms of performance. Turnover at Unidare rose in 1978 from £6,409,000 to £22,417,000. Export sales fell from £5,807,000 to £5,283,000 by year's end of

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December 1978 but still accounted for 26% of sales. Pre-tax profits rose from £1,780,000 to £2,266,000 in 1978 also (Irish Press, 10/03/1979)63.

4.3.20 - Thomas Brooks

Brooks Thomas enjoyed rapid growth in the 70’s and in 1971 was the largest builders' provider in the country. The company was very management-orientated and introduced new training methods and conducted a survey of the industry, to see how best to speed up profit growth and improve cash flow. Brooks Thomas were hot on the takeover and acquisition trail, and this expansionist policy almost doubled its size in the financial year ending January 31, 1971. Also, its capital employed more than doubled and, on this basis, the group ranked among the top ten Irish companies (Irish Examiner, 10/03/1971)64. In September of the same year, they announced that about 265 of its workers in Dublin were to lose their jobs. Also the group, which employed 1200 at the time, closed the steel section in Foley Street, which employed 45. Between 80 and 90 other workers in the timber division at the North Wall became redundant, while 25 in the central services division lost their jobs. The job losses came as a result of management fear of joining the EEC (Irish Independent, 16/09/1972)65.

4.3.21 - Philip Pierce

In 1978 Pierce employed 173 workers and planned to increase this to 300 by 1982. The firm specialised in agricultural machinery which was seen as an area of obvious, potential, considering that 98% of 1978’s equipment was imported. Pierce Wexford was formed by TMG at the beginning of the year after it had acquired the assets of Philip Pierce from the liquidator of the Brittain Group (Irish Independent, 11/07/1978)66. 63 http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IPR%2F1979%2F03%2F10&id=Ar00605&sk=A564F9FC

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4.4 – Summary of the 1970’s

This period saw Ireland gain membership to the European Economic Community in 1973, which brought its own challenges and opportunities. Notable large employers included SPS international, Tubex, Templemichael mills and Ridge Tool. These firms were all foreign owned. Their main purpose was mainly to export their goods rather than get too heavily involved with the domestic market. They took advantage of Ireland’s proximity to Europe and the generous tax offerings available. While this had a positive effect on employment levels, it was also detrimental to many indigenous firms. A large portion of the firms who had previously been successful were forced to join groups such as TMG group. Many that opted to stand alone suffered and were forced to closure or considerable job losses for example Thomas Brooks LTD and Irish Aluminium Company LTD. The table below illustrates the size structure of firms in the middle of the period, and demonstrates the vast contrasts between the 1960 numbers and those for my next period, which is the sector between the years 1980 and 1992.

Figure 2 – size structure of firms 1975

(Census of Industrial Production 1975) 5.0 – 1980 – 1992

5.1 - The Irish Economy in the 1980’s

The 1980’s were a very tough period for Ireland economically. The 1977 budget had a profound negative effect on the economy over this time. Policies such as abolishing car tax, coupled with global economic problems lead to increased unemployment and emigration. The government responded by borrowing massively and increasing tax rates. Our currency was overvalued, a contributing factor to the lack of foreign investment to the country. The government constantly switched from being in the power of Fianna Fail to that of Fine Gael. Throughout the 1970’s over £1.5 billion was provided by the government for the IDA to spend on grants to industries, mainly to attract foreign investment. This resulted in an extremely debt-finances government who aimed to repay this debt by increasing taxation levels and in particular that of PAYE. Importantly, this taxation on income was not used to expand the welfare state, train the unemployed or invest in education as intended. Instead, it was simply used to repay debt caused by overspending in the decade previous. The recession came and when it did many of the MNC’s who were provided with grants left the country. This lead to a dramatic rise in unemployment levels. In 1980 92,253 people were signed onto the live register. By 1987 this figure had almost triple to 249,762 with over 110,000 of those considered to be long term unemployed. With taxation growing rapidly, inevitably taxation as a percentage of GDP also grew. In 1965, taxation accounted for 26.5% of GDP. By 1985, this had reached 38.9% of GDP, an unsustainable figure. This high taxation level was a huge contributing factor to the high emigration levels in the country, which totalled 206,000 by the end of the decade. The government introduced many expansionary measures during the decade to try to stimulate economic growth. However, these measures instead lead to increased inflation, which rose to 18.2 in 1980 but came down considerably in the next 3 years to 10.5%. Gross national income (GNI) per capita also decreased rapidly from around 25% to 5% between 1980 and 1982 alone. By 1981 the Irish national debt had reached £10.2 billion. Fianna Fail’s policies were a huge contributing factor in economic growth falling from 5% in 1977 to zero by 1981. In 1981 the government were spending so much that by June they had already spent the total amount budgeted for the year. As a result of the high unemployment rates, social spending jumped from 28.9% of GDP in 1980 to 35.6% in 1985. In 1987 the national debt reached 130 percent of GNP (Hogan, 2011). One success to be taken from the period however was the reduction in inflation by the Fianna Fail-labour coalition from 17% to 4%. By the mid 1980’s the economy was in a downward spiral and employment was beginning to offset emigration. The period was one of prolonged recession. This is primarily blamed on the many governmental changes of the early 1980’s, who were incapable of implementing coherent policies. From 1987 onwards, the Fianna Fail led government focused on reducing the public tax burden and fiscal retrenchment.

Unemployment figures settled somewhat and by 1989 unemployment was down to 14%. By the late 1980’s the economic conditions had improved somewhat. However, in 1989 Ireland’s per capita GDP was still only 70 per cent of the EU average (O’Connor, 2011).

5.2 - Metal Products Industry from 1980 – 1992

At the beginning of the decade there were 724 firms on the industry distributed between a little over 16,000 employees, a substantial increase from the 174 firms in 1960, as can be seen in Figure 6 and table 14. Over the course of the decade both the numbers employed in the industry and the numbers employed decreased. However, this wasn’t truly the case for the industry as a whole but rather for a select number of sub-industries, of which I have highlighted a few in order to gather a better understanding of how the industry was really constructed and where the majority of the employment lay. By 1992, there were substantially less firms in the industry, 542. The employment numbers reflected this change, dropping to 12,441, as can be seen in Figure 7, below. One particular industry where employment declined in the 1980’s was that of Fabricated metal products (Nace 28.7) where employment went from 9482 in 1979 to 5856 in 1992. The overall sector consisted of two main areas. The Production and processing of metals and the manufacture of metal articles. Between the Production and processing of metals and the manufacture of metal articles, they accounted for 12% of total manufacturing employment in 1982, slightly below the EEC average of 14.3% (O’Malley, 1987). Table 6 shows the fluctuation between the metal products industry employment share in overall employment over the years. This period also saw a large increase in foreign influence and a polarisation between larger firms, many of which were foreign, and indigenous firms, which tended to be smaller. By 1986, 52.6% of metal products industry was employed by new foreign firms. (O’Hearn, 1987). These firms for the most part came to Ireland in the 60’s or early 70’s and were attracted by low wage rates. These firms also considered Ireland to be a tax shelter that they could use in order to penetrate the EEC. In this sense, Ireland is similar to Singapore and Puerto Rico, which are both small tax havens used as satellite manufacturing locations for Asia and North America respectively. While in the USA, Japan and Germany the metals industry is primarily made up and controlled by very large firms, the situation in Ireland is much different. The industry here at this time consisted of a large number of very small firms and a low number of larger firms. One of these larger firms however was Irish Steel, who were one of the largest firms in the metals and engineering sector and whose poor performance during the 1980’s had a profound effect on the industry as a whole. Steelmaking is a very large-scale industry for the most part and Irish Steel, although large by Irish standards, is in fact a mini-steelworks. Since the state-owned firm is so reliant on scrap metal, their margins are almost entirely dependent on the price, which increase quite rapidly during the decade, leading to their failings. With losses at over 90 per cent of turnover in 1982/83 and still at 35 per cent of turnover in 1984/85, although a small profit was recorded in 1985/86, Irish Steel have been described as economically crippled over this period.

Of the 542 firms that existed in 1992, 249 (46%) had less than 10 employees. 4 firms were considered very large (> 200 employees) and 13 had between 100 and 199. Even though 46% of firms had less than 10 employees, they only contributed to 6.7% of gross output while the 4 largest firms accounted for 22% of the 542, 490 were Indigenous firms, representing ¾ of the overall employment. The foreign firms tended to be larger and while accounting for only 10% in terms of firm numbers, they represented around 25% of total industry employment. Figure 5 shows how the foreign firms affect the industry as a whole in terms of both employment and output. While only 10% of the industry was foreign these firms accounted for 19% of the output in the metals industry and 37% in the metal articles industry (Baker and Scott, 1989). In 1992 Exports totalled £407 million while imports totalled £754 million. This resulted in an Import / Export ratio of 1.54:1. This import to export ratio is considerably changed from 1960 when it was 2.6:1. During the 1980’s the majority of exports mainly to Great Britain and some to Germany. Imports were also mostly coming from Great Britain but notably many also from Holland. The location of the metal products sector was much unchanged from the decade previous. A little over 40% of the employment industry was located in Dublin and another 35% in Cork and the surrounding areas. The remaining firms were made up of those firms who served their local markets and were not exporting. The Metal Products industry is broken into two main areas, the production and preliminary processing of metals and the manufacture of metal articles, both of which have their own sub industries. I will discuss the largest and most relevant sub-industries within these two main areas. The ‘Production and Preliminary Processing of Metals’ sub-sector consists of Irish Steel Ltd, a state enterprise, which accounted for two-thirds of employment in the industry, and 27 much smaller companies employing only a few hundred people between them at the beginning of the 1980’s. There are major entry barriers arising from economies of scale in the principal activities. In general, there has been very weak demand, significantly growing competition from newly industrialising countries and consequent excess capacity in the developed countries leading to widespread losses. This in turn has led to large levels of protectionism in the developed economies, rationalisation and major cuts in employment, and the imposition of national quota for steel for EEC members. For all these reasons, the export market has been exceptionally poor for this industry, so much so that the weak performance of the Irish indigenous Metals industry was almost inevitable. Also the sub-supply industries within this sector are relatively underdeveloped by Irish firms, because such industries mostly tend to be located in close contact with large concentrations of other engineering industries, which are for the most part lacking in Ireland. The largest sub-sector in this area is the production of iron and steel. This is mostly a very large-scale industry, as seen in the case of the EEC while in the main corresponding US industry the 8 largest firms each employed over 30,000 people

during this period. In Japan some of the firms can get even larger. Thus there are major entry barriers arising from economies of scale and capital costs. However, some large firms have nonetheless overcome these barriers with the aid of protection, and demand growth has been slow but there has been chronic excess capacity and widespread low profitability throughout the 1980’s (O’Malley, 1987).

The ‘Manufacture of Metal Articles’ sub sector is by far the largest Irish indigenous sector in Metals & Engineering and it is relatively well developed by European standards. This is explained by the general insignificance of entry barriers here and also by the fact that much of the sector has a degree of natural protection against distant competitors because there is often a need for close contact with local customers. This is most likely why there were no Irish firms engaged in extremely large-scale activities and the largest establishment employed just over 200. Since much of this sector is virtually non-traded, its fortunes depend heavily on domestic demand, which grew strongly in the 1970s but dropped in the 1980’s with the worst year being 1983 where profits were only 1% of sales. A relatively small proportion of the industry is concentrated in large firms in the four major EEC countries compared with other engineering sectors, but nevertheless there are some fairly large-scale activities in the UK for example 28.5% of employment is in establishments with over 300 workers and 48.6 per cent is in those with over 200. However, there were no Irish firms engaged in large-scale activities and the largest establishment employs just over 200. Indigenous employment accounted for a very substantial amount of total employment. Indigenous firms accounted for 70 per cent of employment in 1973 rising to 77 per cent in 1985 (O’Malley, 1987). One large sub-sector within the area of the manufacture of metal articles is the foundries sector. Foundries, which produce metal castings, are an important part of the industrial infrastructure for engineering, as sub-suppliers or sub-contractors. Thus it would be a matter of some importance to develop it further in order to improve the environment for other industries too. For the most part foundries are not particularly large-scale or high technology industries, but entry barriers arise from skills and logistical costs, depending on the grade or precision of castings involved. Another sub-sector of interest is the Secondary Transformation, Treatment and Coating of Metals sector. In this area, entry barriers due to scale, skills or technology are generally low. Many of these activities are sub-supply or sub-contract industries, which may depend on close contact with customers and consequently supply only quite limited local markets. These sub-supply industries are of course heavily reliant on those they supply and as a result through the 1980’s suffered somewhat due to a decrease in local demand. Between 1980 and 1988 the volume of production increased by 46%. However, for the metal articles industry the volume of production in fact decreased by 28%. Interestingly, over the decade, employment figures for the metal industry decreased, even while increasing volume of production so rapidly, evidence of their increased efficiency. Employment went from 2,550 to 1675 from 1980 to 1988 for “the production and preliminary processing of metals”. While volume of production

decreased for the metal articles industry, so did its employment, going from 17,225 to 11,375, a 34% decrease. The number of small firms overall increased considerably and by 1992 the average firm size was less than half the 1960 figure at just 23 employees per firm. Over the decade, even with the job losses in the industry, there were considerable performance improvements. From 1980 to 1986, net output per head increased by 210% for metals and by 86% for metal articles. As the average wages and salaries increased quite drastically also, by 47% for metals and 22% for metal articles, this would indicate a significantly higher demand for skilled workers and technological and efficiency improvements also due to the job losses (O’Hearn, 1987).

Table 6 - The employment and % of all manufacturing employees employed in

metal for various years.

Year Metals as % of manufacturing employment

Employment

1929 11 % 6,900

1951 12.8% 18,000

1960 5.5% 10,900

1992 15.8% 12,549

Figure 7: Graph of employment numbers in the Metal Products industry for various years.

(The Census of Industrial Production 1960,The Census of Industrial Production 1971, The Census of Industrial Production 1980, The Census of Industrial Production 1992)

Table 7 - The Number of firms in the Metal Products industry in 1992 by size

Size of firms 1992 Number of Firms

Under 10 249

10 - 19 144

20 - 49 91

50 - 99 41

100 - 199 13

200 + 4

Table 8 - Large firms in the Metal Products Industry in the 1980-92

Name of firm Employees

I.V.I foundry 120

Patrick Kelly and company ltd 116

Tonge McGloughlin 207**

Irish Steel Holdings LTD 699**

Irish Wire Products LTD 91

Waterford metal Industries LTD 94

Waterford Foundry Group 400**

Aughinish Aluminia 700**

Pierce Wexford ltd 147

Liebherr 180

Thomas Thompson and Co. LTD. 77

Keenan Brothers LTD 90

Ridge Tool 117

Tool & Gauge 80

SPS international 400**

Radley Engineering 284

Atlas Aluminium 175

Stag Cutlery 120

Unidare 1000**

Thomas Brooks and Co. LTD 400**

*If not 1992 figure, employment figure is for closest possible to 1992 **Including subsidiaries

5.3 – Firm Level Data 5.3.1 - Metal Products (Cork) LTD The firm sold several of their premises in 1980. A new company formed by employees was expected took over the ownership and control of three divisions of Metal Products Ltd., Kinsale Road, Cork, on February 13 1983. Metal Products Ltd, the long established engineering and fabrication group, went into receivership in September 1983 (Irish Examiner, 03/02/1984)67. Eight weeks notice was issued to 114 people at the Kinsale Road depot and to 45 workers at Albert Road in December 1983. Mr Bart O'Mahony, Asst. Branch Secretary, ITGWU, said it was decided to seek a meeting with the directors and interested parties. He said the directors had a moral obligation to the workers, some of who had 45 years service (Irish Examiner, 25/01/1984)68. 5.3.2 - IVI foundry

In 1982 the company went into receivership. Kildare Eurofoundry, a Dutch company, took over the plant at the beginning of 1984, after 120 employees were made redundant, when the IVI foundry closed down in September 1982. Workers at the plant were critical of management for encouraging them to accept low wages in order to get the new company off the ground. In 1985 forty people were laid off from the Athy, Co. Kildare firm of Kildare Eurofoundry Ltd. following the appointment of a receiver after disclosures that the company had liabilities of between £500,000 and £1 million (Irish Examiner, 06/06/1985)69. In 1986 the foundry was taken over and renamed the Athy co-op foundry. In 1988 the minister for labour praised the firm “the success of the Athy Co-Op Foundry to date is significant. It demonstrates real employment maintenance value. It harnesses the skills and commitment of otherwise redundant workers. It has spin-off benefits for the local economy” (Leinster express, 10/12/1988)70.

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5.3.3 - Patrick Kelly & Co. Ltd

In 1984 The Steel and Agricultural Engineering Ironworks in Portlaoise ceased trading. The company was a subsidiary of Abbey Ltd and Abbey Managing Director; Mr J. P. A. McHugh said that the closure was due to "continuing substantial losses." It was also said that there was "no likelihood of return to profitability in the foreseeable future due to the on-going recession and the collapse of the structural steel and agricultural markets." 35 lost their jobs (Irish Examiner, 05/01/1984)71. This news came as a shock as only the year before the well-known farm building and structural steel engineering company had introduced a bonding scheme on all deposits received from its customers. This was a welcome move as it offered all Kelly customers complete security for their deposits in a time of many company closures and liquidations (Kilkenny People, 04/11/1983)72. 5.3.4 - Tonge Mcloughlin: Became TMG group and had many successful partnerships including a partnership with the Smurfit’s, which saw them become one of the stock market’s leading performers. From 1979 onwards the shine had been knocked off the company's glossy image, with a succession of financial crises, which saw the company's share price tumble from over 200p in 1979 to just 6p in September 1982. The group incurred losses amounting to almost £6 million in 1980 and £2.5 in 1981, leading to the resignation of their CEO, Maurice Buckley, in 1982 (Irish Press, 08/09/1982)73. The reasons for these poor performances are due to the subsidiaries Waterford Ironfounders and AH Masser. The Waterford firm struggled due to the flood of cheap imported solid fuel stoves into Ireland had seriously eroded the group's home market. In 1987 one of the country’s oldest companies looked doomed after almost 120 years in business. Tonge & Taggart, the Dublin-based iron founders were part of the

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Jefferson Smurfit Group and in 1987 had been placed in voluntary liquidation (Irish Examiner, 08/09/1982)74.

5.3.5 - TMG group The closure of Pierces of Wexford and the planned redundancies at Waterford Ironfounders - two companies within the TMG Group added to an already serious unemployment problem in the industry. The action by the TMG Group saw job losses of 270. It is ironic that in early 1980 the TMG Group appeared to provide a ray of hope for the two subsidiaries. Together with the Industrial Development Authority it was planning a £2 million expansion programme at Pierces and it had secured a massive £17 million order from the U.S. for solid fuel heaters for Waterford Ironfounders. They had also very recently acquired Massey Ferguson and later laid off just over 75% of their employees from over 100 to 24. This was a common problem for many of the indigenous firms in the industry with the introduction of some of the newer IDA sponsored industries, whose owners sole interest in Ireland or its communities was their ability to make profits (Sunday Independent, 14/12/1980)75. In May 1982 the group sold its Headquarters on the Kylemore Road that was built in the sixties for £750,000. It then moved its administrative operation to the former Massey Ferguson premises on the Naas Road. They also sold off J&C Mcloughlin for £160,000 in 1984. The company showed performance improvements in 1985 with pre-tax profits up 119% and turnover up 11% (Irish Press, 28/05/1982)76. 5.3.6 - Waterford Foundry group

'The Waterford Foundry Group which was Irish owned employed 400 people and consisted of three companies: Waterford Foundry Ltd. at Bilberry, Waterford which manufactured the Stanley range of solid fuel, gas-and oil fired cookers and stoves for central heating together with a variety of contract castings. 280 people were employed at the Bilberry plant; Pierce Engineering Ltd. the Wexford based-subsidiary, which undertook all the sheet metal work, required for Stanley cookers

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and Waterford stoves and a number of other general engineering activities. Waterford Irish Stoves Inc. which distributed Waterford wood and pellet, stoves on the US and Canadian markets. They held in excess of 80% of their home market and exported to Japan, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most countries in Europe and Scandinavia (Munster Express, 01/02/1992)77. The Company expanded its production capacity in Waterford in 1991. The Waterford Foundry Group was seen as a role model of the type of business the IDA was promoting. It developed a strong presence in its market based on a reputation for quality products. Their sustained programme of product development and strong marketing are leading, to substantial increases in sales in Ireland and in overseas markets and this in turn lead to about 100 extra jobs in Waterford and Wexford by 1992 (Munster Express, 20/09/1991)78.

5.3.7 - Hammond Lane foundry At the beginning of the decade, the group was absorbed into the very large TMG group owned by Michael Smurfit. The TMG group had also had AH Masser and Waterford Ironfounders join in the few years previous.

5.3.8 - Aughinish Alumina

Based on the Limerick side of the Shannon Estuary, the firm in 1987 was considered to be the biggest single private investment in the history of the state, and was one of the biggest alumina factories in Europe costing £630 million. During its peak years between 1978 and ‘83 the firm employed 6,500 men and women, working on the 1,000 acre site at peak. Considered to be in "steady-state" operations in 1987, it employed some 700 people with a payroll of over £15 million a year. Its energy bill in 1986 was a staggering £8 million and it was the second largest ratepayer in the country. The company claimed to benefit the Irish economy to the tune of £40, million in 1986 (Irish Press, 16/03/1987)79. The firm based on Shannon estuary in 1992 announced, shock redundancies and early retirements among the 650 management and staff. A total 20 employees were

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left at the end of January including personnel from most staff support groups in the organisation (Irish Independent 18/01/1992)80.

5.3.9 - Irish Steel Holdings

In May 1980 a production and marketing agreement between Irish Steel Holdings and the French steel firm, Sociele Metallurgique et Navale Dunkerque-Normandia SA (SMNDN) was formally approved by the European Commission. In their new works at Haulbowline, Irish Steel included the installation of a new bar and section mill. SMNDN in turn from the opening of the new mill gradually transferred to Irish Steel its orders for medium sections of steel and closed its own medium section mill at Mondeville, France (Irish Examiner, 10/05/1980)81. In 1982 the firm had 699 workers. The company aimed to make 60 of them voluntarily redundant and had 100 applications for redundancy. The steel firm at Haulbowline was set up by private enterprise in 1938. It was taken over by the State in 1947, when it employed 250 people, producing less than 6,000 tonnes a year. Expansion programmes in the late 50s and early 70s were aimed almost completely at enabling the plant to capture an increasing proportion of the expanding home market. The situation changed in 1973, when Ireland joined the EEC. Immediately the company assessed its production and marketing strategy. As a result, a new £40,000,000 redevelopment plan was drawn up to modernise the milling process completely aiming at export markets. In 1982, the company experienced a loss of £22 million, heavily affected by the Brussels regulations on sales and production. The decrease in demand throughout the decade had a profound effect on this performance and in 1983 the company was extremely close to closure but was bailed out by the government for a sum of £45 million (Irish Independent, 14/05/1982)82.

5.3.10 - Irish Aluminium Company

Both sales and pre-tax profits for the year 1979 showed a fall and the pre-tax profits for the year slumped to £27,602, barely one-third of the 1978 figure of £82,610. The

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company had reported a surplus of £62,000 for the six months to June. Sales dropped to £2,002,305, a fall of around 10% on the £2.22m the previous year. In 1980 the receiver of the firm concentrated his efforts in selling the company as a going concern. To curtail the losses and make the company as attractive as possible to potential buyers, the title department was closed in September 1980. This had been the most consistent loss-making section of the company and a constant drain on its resources. The business was extensively advertised throughout Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere in a world-wide search for a suitable buyer. Assistance was sought from the I.D.A. through its rescue divisions and its overseas offices. Numerous enquiries were received and, following preliminary negotiations with the receiver, a number of potential buyers emerged mainly from Germany and Holland. Successful negotiations were completed with the German company named Ateliergemeinschaft Tonnieshof Lutz Kiel of Moringen, with assistance from the I.D.A. who provided grant-aid to the new concern (Irish Press, 04/04/1980)83. The company came extremely close to closure in 1984 but the following year it was taken over by an American firm who employed an additional 90 people and built a 24,000 square foot premises (Nenagh Guardian, 18/05/1985)84.

5.3.11 - Waterford Metal Industries

In 1986 the long-established Waterford Metal Industries Ltd., which had strong trading links with the Cork area, received a new lease of life from the takeover of its business by the former general manager, Mr Thomas Murray. The company immediately employed 14 workers and exploited the market potential for its products which included pressure vessels, hollow-ware, farm equipment and rainwater goods as well as contract galvanising (Irish Examiner, 03/04/1986)85.

5.3.12 - Liebherr Cranes

In July of 1981 the company threatened to lay off 300 employees if work on a project was not done to management’s satisfaction. According to a seven-point notice issued to employees, management stated they had no option but to lay off workshop

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personnel completely if work was not fully resumed. The German-owned factory was the second biggest in Killarney and the announcement sent out shock waves in the town and surrounding areas. A shortage of orders since late 1980 had been causing problems for the factory, which began production in 1959. In the first half of 1981 up to 179 workers had been laid off on a week-to-week basis. The rest of the decade saw steady growth for the firm however, with an increase in the demand for cranes. 1990 was a bright year for the Liebherr crane factory, Killarney, which had healthy order books and prospects of additional new business. To meet demands of 1989, 62 extra welders and fitters, as well as ten technical staff, were taken on and the company was continually recruiting. Orders were secured through international public tender despite stiff competition from other crane manufacturers around the world (Irish Examiner, 03/07/1981)86. In 1989 the company also secured a significant contract with Dublin Port. Because of the European grant aspect, the contract was advertised widely and enquiries were made by 14 companies from Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Denmark, as well as Ireland. Nine were accepted for a short-list tender and Liebherr Container Cranes won on both price and delivery times. At this time Liebherr employed 300 people at its Killarney works, where it had been used for the past 30 years and it has specialised in container handling gantry cranes since 1972. Liebherr also owned three hotels in Killarney and had an annual turnover of nearly £15m. It was part of the international Liebherr group of 40 companies with headquarters in West Germany and a workforce of over 13,000 people. They were at this time the largest crane manufacturers in Europe and the second largest in the world (Irish Press, 18/07/1989)87.

5.3.13 - Thomas Thompson and Son LTD

The 1980’s were not nearly as favourably for Thomas Thompson as the 1970’s. The two companies both based in the steel engineering business employing a total of 80 people were wound-up through insolvency. The High Court in Dublin in appointed a provisional liquidator over Thomas Thompson & Son Ltd., Hanover Works, Carlow, and its sister company, Thompson Steel Divisions Ltd. The principal company, who employed 77, carried on business as steel fabricators, manufacturers of truck bodies and trailers and mechanical engineers until closure in 1985. This came only 4 years

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after securing a huge contract for Irish Cement Limited in Limerick totalling 2400 tonnes of steelwork (Irish Examiner, 07/06/1985)88.

5.3.14 - Keenan Brothers LTD

In 1983, the firm, which had been running for 28 years, went into liquidation. The company had 90 employees at the time. The firm based in Carlow claimed that the structural steel business and market had been the primary reason behind their trading losses. Their suppliers were unwilling to trade in anything other than cash and demand for steel had drastically decreased in Ireland in the years leading up to their closure. The company had traditionally relied on overdrafts from Allied Irish Bank for its working capital needs but this facility was stopped in November of 1983. The IDA looked into intervening and assistance but the company had too great a debt. Since 1971, the IDA had provided Keenan Brothers with over £500,000 in grants and at one stage the firm had over 200 employees (Irish Press, 30/11/1983)89. 5.3.15 - Ridge Tool

21 of the 117 people employed at the Ridge Tool Company in Mahon, Cork, were made redundant at the end of the September 1982. The General Manager said the action was designed to allow the company to ride out the current recession and grow in the future as sales picked up again. The company, which set up in Cork in 1978, exported a range of pipe tools and machines to the U.S.A., E.E.C. countries, Scandinavian countries and Eastern Europe. It was part of the huge Emerson Electric Company of St. Louis, U.S.A (Irish Examiner, 03/09/1982)90. In 1982 all 80 ITGWU members walked out of the Ridge Tool Ireland Ltd. factory at Blackrock, Cork, in an unofficial dispute over machinery operating arrangements (Irish Examiner, 03/03/1982)91.

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5.3.16 - Tool & Gauge Tool & Gauge was one of Ireland's original tool and mould-making, precision engineering and moulding companies. They were a privately owned Irish company established in 1956. In 1984, the firm was purchased by a consortium including past engineers and bankers. The consortium that bought the assets intended to export about 75% of the output from the plant and budgeted for a turnover in the region of £1.5 million in 1984. Job potential of the new projects planned project was between 40 and 50 people extra. Tool & Gauge employed 80 people at this time (Irish Independent, 12/12/1984)92. In 1981 Tool and Gauge completed tooling for the housing of the Apple 11 personal computer. These were manufactured by Vartra Plastics in Frankfurt and the high precision order was won ahead of competition from many other countries. At this time, Tool and Gauge exported 80% of its total production and clients include Ford, Xerox and IBM (Irish Press, 22/10/1981)93. In June of the same year, Tool & Gauge was being wound-up by the High Court The court was told that the company which carried on business at Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, and was insolvent. The company had received a letter from the Revenue Commissioners demanding payment of £304,000. The company had been running at an increasing weekly loss (Irish Examiner, 21/06/1984)94. 5.3.17 - SPS International About 60 men were laid off in the SPS- International factory on the Shannon Industrial Estate in November 1981. In Shannon, the recession hit the Precision Fasteners and Steel Tool Plant hard, one of the earliest industries on the estate. With HQ in Pennsylvania, the redundancy move was due to a drop in orders and the company's decision not to build up stocks. The reason for the redundancies was the continuing decline in business, particularly in the US and European marketing areas,

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where indications were that the recession would continue all during 1981 and beyond (Irish Press, 08/11/1980)95. This drop in demand was not helped by a strike the following year. In January 1982, Almost 300 workers at the Shannon firm turned down an 11% per cent wage increase and given strike notice. The employees were warned of serious consequences if the strike was to go ahead on February 1.The strike notice was submitted by the ITGWU on behalf of 150 workers and by the NEETU on behalf of 130 craft workers, following the rejection of a 12% wage increase (Irish Press, 14/01/1982)96.

5.3.18 - Radley Engineering LTD In 1980 Radley Engineering in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford was a business employing 284 people and with an annual turnover of about £5 million. John and brother Tom Radley built up their business, installing steel containers on a variety of sites around the south. They soon realised that much of the work they were competing for was going to foreign companies because they could manufacture the vessels themselves. So they decided to set up their own manufacturing plant. The firm received much assistance through IDA grants (Sunday Independent, 24/08/1980)97. The Dungarvan Engineering Company announced expansion plans to create 40 new jobs. At the time, Radley Engineering Ltd, which already employed 110 workers in its Kildalton plant outside Dungarvan planned to extend its operations in 1992. 5.3.19 - Atlas Aluminium Atlas started in 1980 with just five employees. In that year the owner, who had previously worked an eight year stint in the U.S. and the U.K., met a German man who worked with a die-casting operation in Mallow. With the help of Shannon Development, they began operating from Roxboro. The Limerick company upped its workforce from five to 175 in ten years and was unable to cope with the demand they were receiving. In 1991 the owner of Atlas Aluminium, Sean Lyons revealed that the company was expanding through methods including the construction of a new 95http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IPR%2F1980%2F11%2F08&id=Ar01020&sk=85A71464 96http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IPR%2F1982%2F01%2F14&id=Ar00303&sk=79CCAD98 97 http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=SIN%2F1980%2F08%2F24&id=Ar01315&sk=16A51817

premises and 70 extra jobs at the Dock Road plant. The new £1 million building was enhanced by a further spending of a similar amount on capital investment. Atlas was the only die-casting manufacturer in the country. Their impressive customer list included General Motors, I.B.M., Borg Warner and Hewlett Packard. They were able to manufacture product at their Limerick factory, export it to Germany and still beat all the top European competitors for quality, price and delivery (Limerick Leader, 20/04/1991)98. 5.3.20 - Irish Wire Products

The numbers employed were cut from 123 to 91 in 1980. Irish Wire Products of Limerick produced pre-tax profit of over £105,000 for the year ended March 31. 1982. The company had been switching from home sales to exports in the previous years and in the period under review up to 45 per cent of sales amounting to a total of £3.3 million for the year were sold in the UK, the firms only export market. But despite the switch in emphasis for the home market the group was facing stiff competition in the UK. Its competitors in the UK were facing cost increases in 1982 of about 5 per cent compared with about 15 per cent in Ireland. The company had been reviewing its overall position with the help of the Industrial Development Authority (Irish Examiner, 19/08/1982)99. Irish Wire Products (IWP) paid almost £7 million in cash and shares for a toiletries firm, which was located only four miles from its sister firm, Tiger Tim Firelighters Company in North Wales. The acquisition, Sanoda Ltd., made chemical hygiene products including air fresheners, toilet fresheners and toilet blocks. The companies differ in one respect, however, Sanoda employed almost 250 people, while Tiger Tim, with a similar, turnover, employed only 50. Turnover in the year 1987 was £5.5m and pre-tax profits were £655,000 (Irish Independent, 09/03/1988)100. 5.3.21 - Stag Cutlery

In 1973 Jowika (Ireland) Ltd., was sold to an American firm. The company was then wholly owned by Imperial Knife Company of New York and Providence, Rhode Island, and its name was changed to Stag Cutlery. Its production was rather specialised and consisted of folding knives with a use in outdoor activities, hobby and 98 http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=LML%2F1991%2F04%2F20&id=Ar02201&sk=AA4D7B74 99 http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IEX%2F1982%2F08%2F19&id=Ar00602&sk=8570BEE3 100 http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina.edu/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IND%2F1988%2F03%2F09&id=Ar00406&sk=D6EC462F

work. The product quality started from inexpensive beginnings and from there developed into a solid workmanlike quality with high value for money to the final customer. In 1983 the company gave permanent employment to 100 people. Modern mass production techniques were used calling for very exacting tooling and accurate setup of machinery, but also a measure of personal skill and hand finishing was used to provide the right quality blend. The material ingredients, which went into the knives, were European steel, both stainless and carbon, which was purchased In West Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Plastics came from the United Kingdom and West Germany and the corkscrews used in some of their knives were imported from France. Some parts made by the American parent company were also used but more than 75 per cent of the value of the product was created in Listowel (Kerryman, 02/12/1983)101. In 1989 due to grants, 20 new jobs were created through expansion at Stag Cutlery Ltd. The funds were made available from the Department of Industry and were administered by Shannon Development (Kerryman, 15/12/1989)102.

5.3.22 - Unidare

The 1980’s were tough for the Finglas based firm. The firm, who once employed over 1500, employed little over 1000 in 1984. In 1983, Unidare's sales rose by only 3% in value to £45.8 million in the year to December 31. This comprised a 6% rise in exports to £26 million, while domestic sales declined in value by 2% at £19.8 million, having suffered a volume drop of 9% on the previous year. In 1983 they posted a 22% rise in pre-tax results to £2.6 million. However, as previously indicated, the improvement came largely through cost cutting measures and the elimination of certain non-profitable activities, like its Aluminium extruding plant. The chief reason for strong profit margins was that the bulk of the group's profits were earned in 1982 in Britain, where the corporation tax rate was 52 %. In 1983 the chairman made the plea for an overall reduction in tax on business in Ireland, corporate as well as personal. He claimed it was needed to encourage enterprise and to allow a better return for effort at all levels (Irish Independent, 24/03/1984)103.

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Unidare, the light-engineering group based at Finglas, Dublin, in May 1989 announced the closure of its strike-bound electrical transformer business with the loss of 43 jobs. Following 100 job cuts and reorganisation costing £1.5m, Unidare reported in 1989 pre-tax profits up by 28 per cent to £5.8m (Irish Press, 18/05/1989)104. 5.3.23 - Thomas Brooks

In 1983 Brooks Thomas group sold one of their largest subsidiaries, Brooks Building, which had been a consistently profitable business since it was started in 1976. In fact 1983 had been its best year ever. The parent company sold BBS to take some of the pressure off its other loss making ventures. The group was taken over in 1981 by a Finnish firm, Rauma-Repola (Souhern Star, 15/01/1983)105. In 1987 the firm made further redundancies of 72 employees. There was no alternative as the firm had already made all possible contributions to cost cutting. In the 1970s there were 1,000 people employed by the company. That figure was trimmed back to 400 in 1981 and there had been several more cuts throughout the 1980’s (Irish Independent, 05/11/1987)106. 5.3.24 - Philip Pierce

In November 1980 the TMG group announced that one of Wexford's oldest industries Pierce Wexford Ltd., was to close with the loss of 147 jobs. The T.M.G. group explored every possible avenue in an attempt to turn Pierce into a viable business. However, the seriousness of the recession in the economy frustrated these efforts (Irish Examiner 06/11/1980)107. The IDA sued Pierce Wexford Ltd., in voluntary liquidation, for specific performance of the contract, dated June 23, 1981, under which the defendants agreed to convey

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lands at Distillery Road, Wexford. The defendants agreed to a sum of £159,268 (Irish Examiner, 05/12/1985)108.

5.4 - 1980 – 1992 – Summary

The sector found itself in quite a different position in 1992 compared with 1960. As I decided to focus solely on the larger firms for the purpose of the report, I conducted some additional research into the very small firms also. I found it surprising that during a period when international trade and economies of scale were becoming such crucial success factors, that so many small firms were being set up. My findings concluded that while most of the larger firms opted for premises and buildings near ports, particularly in Cork and Dublin, these smaller firms were very widespread and often in small, rural towns and villages. They generally produced very specific, niche products that few other firms tended to manufacture and served indigenous markets, rarely exporting. Within the larger firms I studied, there were great variants of success in the 1980’s. While some thrived, others including SPS and Liebherr went through tough times leading to many redundancies. There was overall steep decline in employment over the period fuelled by the fact that while relatively large firms were closing down, only very small firms were opening up in their place. From 1980 to 1992, employment dropped from 16,670 to 12,441 in 1992 I am going to conclude with an overall summary of the transition and development through the period. Figure 3 demonstrates the size structure of firms in 1992, vastly different from 32 years previous.

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Figure 3 – Size Structure of firms 1992

(Census of Industrial Production 1992)

6.0 - Project summary and conclusion

The easiest and most effective method of explaining how the industry developed through this time is through key figures and stats. The first figures are in relation to how the industry developed comparatively with the rest of the manufacturing industry. As we can see in table 6, the sector played a relatively small role in the overall manufacturing industry, employing only 5.5% overall. By 1992, this percentage had more than tripled and even though employment barely rose, this shows how much greater of a role the sector played in terms of nationwide manufacturing. While many foreign firms did disrupt the domestic industry, many also purchased Irish firms, sometimes changing the name and rebranding and sometimes not. This allowed for Irish firms who would have struggled to compete in an international market dominated by large firms to have greater access to resources, through these foreign owners. In a survey conducted by the Committee of Industrial Progress in 1970, firms in the metals sector were asked how much of a threat they believed free trade and in particular EEC membership would play on their business. While some regarded it as having a high level of influence, most believed that the effects would be minor and some believed that free trade would actually benefit their

business by giving them greater access to foreign resources. These contrasting positions on the matter stemmed from the fact that there was a significant size contrast of many firms in the sector and this contrast only increased over the period 1960 - 1992, which brings me on to my second key figure. In table 9 below we can see that in a sector typically controlled by large firms, the number of very small firms actually increased quite substantially over the period. This figure displays how there were many firms, particularly in rural parts of Ireland, creating niche products and serving only local markets, hence their survival. However, these smaller firms did little to contribute to the sector overall and in 1992 accounted for only 6.7% of gross output compared with the 4 largest firms who accounted for 22%. Table 11 shows that even with these large firms having such a great impact, the average firm size interestingly decreased by over 100% over the period. Over the period gross output also increased rapidly. The larger firms were successful not just domestically but abroad also, leading to this growth. While the biggest gross output contributor to the industry was electrical and optical equipment, the metals sector was very close account for slightly under 5% of total gross output in 1992 (CSO, 1992). Unlike many sectors the metal sectors reliance on imports actually lessened over the period, even with the free-trade agreements introduced. Table 12 shows the import to export ratio decreased significantly, albeit though much of this was due to the exporting capabilities of the foreign firms. In 1992 exports accounted for 48% of total gross output, which was £806 million. Also, over the period, firms often amalgamated creating for example the Irish Steel Consortium. These groups had a much better chance of exporting their products, receiving contracts for large projects and generally competing with the larger, international firms. Other reasons for growth include the improvements in technology of the sector helped by the £1.25 million of IDA grants in the 60’s to modernise premises and machinery. Similarly, another type of grant called the adaptations grant scheme was provided for smaller, local firms to update their processes. These forms of assistance could only do so much however and almost all of the larger indigenous firms had to restructure over the period. Many formed groups, some were taken over or merged with foreign firms and a few also closed. This period clearly saw some change from a metal sector consisting of many smaller to medium sized, predominantly Irish-owned firms to a sector dominated by big foreign players, mixed with a massive number of very small firms. Overall, while the shape and structuring changed greatly, the sector certainly advanced and progressed through the period in question.

Table 6 - The employment and % of all manufacturing employees employed in metal for various years.

Year Metals as % of manufacturing employment

Employment

1929 11 % 6,900

1951 12.8% 18,000

1960 5.5% 10,900

1992 15.8% 12,549

Table 9 - Contribution to gross output by size structure 1992

Size % Of gross output by firms

<10 12%

10-19 16%

20-49 21%

50-99 23%

100-199 13%

250+ 16%

CSO, 1992

Table 10 - Small firms as a % of overall number 1960 v 1992

Year 1960 1992

Number of firms 174 542

% of firms < 10 employees 34% 42%

CSO 1960, CSO 1992

Table 11 - Average firm size comparison 1960 v 1992

Year 1960 1992

Average firm size 49 23

CSO 1960, CSO 1992

Table 12 - Import to export ratio by year

Year 1960 1992

Import to export ratio 2.6 : 1 1.54 : 1

Trade statistics of Ireland 1960, Trade statistics of Ireland 1992

References:

1. O’Hearn (1987). Estimates of New Foreign Manufacturing Employment in

Ireland (1956-1972). The University of Michigan

2. O’Malley (1987). The Irish Engineering Industry: Strategic analysis and policy

recommendations. The Economic Research and Social Institute

3. Farley (1975). Determinants of Establishment Size in Irish Manufacturing

Industries: Some Notes on the Irish Case 1931-1972. The Economic

Research and Social Institute

4. Baker and Scott (1989). 1992 and the Metal and Mechanical Engineering

Sector. The Economic Research and Social Institute.

5. Committee on Industrial Progress (CIP) (1970). Report on the Metal Trades

Industry. The stationery office.

6. Committee on Industrial Organisation (CIO) (1963). Report on survey of the

iron and steel manufacturer’s industry. The stationery office.

7. O’Malley (1989) The industry and economic development. Gill & Macmillan.

8. Restrictive Practices Commission (1978). Report of studies on industrial

concentration and mergers in Ireland. The stationery office.

9. Mcaleese (1976). Industrial Specialisation and Trade: Northern Ireland and

the Republic. The Economic Research and Social Institute

10. Linehan (1962). The Structure of Irish Industry. Journal of the Statistical and

Social Inquiry Society of Ireland.

11. Mary McMahon (2011). Dublin Historic Industry Database. The geographical

survey of Ireland.

12. O’Malley (1981) The decline of Irish Industry in the nineteenth century. The

economic and social review.

13. Nevin (1962) The comparative position of the Irish manufacturing industry.

The economic research institute, Dublin

14. O’Malley (1980). Industrial Policy and development: A survey of Irish

literature from the 1960’s to present. National Economic and Social Council.

15. Business and Finance magazine (2015). Through the decades (1970-1979).

Business and Finance.

16. Hogan (2010). Economic Crises and Policy Change in the Early 1980s: a

Four Country Comparison. Dublin Institute of Technology.

17. O’Connor (2011). The structural failure of Irish economic development and

employment policy. University College Cork

Appendices

Appendix 1 – Contribution to gross output by size structure 1992

(Census of Industrial Production 1992)

Appendix 2 - Ownership nationality of firms in 1992

(Census of Industrial Production 1992)

Appendix 3 - Ownership nationality of firms in 1992

Nationality % Ownership

Irish 90%

U.K. 2%

Germany 2%

Other E.U. 2%

Non-E.U. 4%

(Census of Industrial Production 1992)

Appendix 4 – Number of firms by year

(Census of Industrial Production 1980, Census of Industrial Production 1960, Census of Industrial Production 1992)

Appendix 5 - Number of firms by year

Year Firm numbers

1960 174

1980 724

1992 542

(Census of Industrial Production 1980, Census of Industrial Production 1960, Census of Industrial Production 1992)

Appendix 6 - Total numbers employed in the industry between 1960 and 1992

Year Employment

1960 10,310

1971 15,700

1980 16,670

1992 12,441

(The Census of Industrial Production 1960,The Census of Industrial Production 1971, The Census of Industrial Production 1980, The Census of Industrial Production 1992)