Location, Location, Location

Meet one of Cavan's greatest cheerleaders!

The IDA's Regional Business Manager James Boyle has his finger on the pulse and a phone number for pretty much every high-ranking official in the North-East region. Reporter Seamus Enright caught up with him to learn more about how he promotes Cavan to foreign investors as a great place in which to live, work and do business...

James makes it his business to know how best to foster job creation locally, and it also makes business sense for the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to keep the Cavanman in the loop.

Before his appointment, the border region was the smallest growth rate category in terms of job numbers. Now James looks to the future of his native Cavan, and indeed the rest of the counties within the North-East region, with a high degree of hope.

There’s confidence too. For it’s size, Ireland has always punched way above its weight in terms of winning a share of the global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on offer.

Retaining, and cultivating that success, however, is another challenge entirely.

James’ role in a nutshell is to lead the cheer for the North-East specifically, even within Ireland, with new or existing client companies as part of a wider IDA team.

“For new inward investment we’re always refining, tweaking our proposition to tell the good news story about what the region has to offer,” says James, immediately pointing to reports from last December when the IDA blew its proverbial own trumpet on what was a record-breaking year for FDI.

Key players

Specifically in Cavan there are currently eight IDA supported businesses operating in the county. They include Boxmore Plastics in Ballyconnell, owned by US-based Chesapeake Corporation; and Saint Gobain (Gyproc) in Kingscourt. Foamalite of Gowna, owned by Germany’s 3A Composites, and Wellman International in Mullagh both specialise in PET ploymer manufacturing; while Global Indemnity, which manages its IT and operations systems teams from Cavan Town, and Liberty Insurance, formerly Quinn Insurance, are both major players in the insurance industry.

PreSonus Europe, a recent arrival and only last year acquired by music giant Fender, has seen staff numbers rise rapidly since moving to new offices near the IDA park in Killygarry; while PublicRelay, a leading US media monitoring and analytics firm, is one of several businesses to now call the Cavan Digital Hub home.

There are eight more IDA supported businesses in neighbouring Monaghan, including Abbott in Cootehill, and together they create several thousand jobs locally.

Numbers employed at IDA client companies “hit their highest level ever” last year nationally, and more than half (133) of 249 of investments won arrived in regional locations.

This happened, James is eager to highlight, against a backdrop of Covid, disruption of supply chains globally, and with Brexit in the rear-view mirror.

Spin-off benefits

“We conservatively estimate that, for every FDI employed person, there is 0.8 jobs created indirectly, or for every 100, there is a spin-off of 80. I see that with SMEs based in the region, whether supplying or servicing into companies now established in the region.”

The IDA is looking to build on that success and attract even more inward investment.

The development agency is completing construction on advanced building solutions in Monaghan and Sligo, and intends to build another in Cavan by 2024.

James has now been almost two and a half years in the role of Regional Business Manager, a job he took up in Summer 2019, after being promoted from head of sales and marketing within the IDA’s strategic property management division.

The merging of the two skillsets means that James is keen to “find solutions” rather than dwell on potential stumbling blocks

When two local Enterprise Ireland supported companies needed land to expand, the IDA wasn’t precious about selling off sites at the Killygarry business park knowing that the investment could foster further relationships down the line.

Specialist ventilation firm Breffni Air is in the process of finishing construction on a second fully serviced factory unit at sites 6 and 7; while fellow manufacturing company, Raptor Engineering from Mountain Lodge, recently broke ground to deliver a fully-serviced industrial unit at site 5.

IDA Park

Along with its proposal to build a new advanced building solution, the IDA is working towards extending infrastructure within the Killygarry site with 230 metres of new roadway, together with footpaths and lighting.

“A contractor has been appointed to carry out that work,” confirmed James. Regarding the near 30,000 sq ft advanced manufacturing facility, he added: “That’s very much something we’re working on.”

Though there is no client yet secured, James says: “The idea is it will act as a significant pull factor in terms of bringing a client to Cavan. When clients are looking at a location, they want to find somewhere, and a site, that delivers as little risk to them as possible in the timeframe they need to get set-up.”

James and his team are already marketing the site through the IDA’s 25 overseas offices in the hope of snagging a business interest.

Then when Covid hit, the capacity to press flesh and meet potential investors vanished. Instead of racking up site visits, James found himself logging on from a make-shift home-office at the kitchen table.

“Luckily,” he says, even before the pandemic brought the world to a halt, the IDA had already invested in the capability to guide clients on so-called “virtual tours”.

“That allowed us to pivot quite quickly,” he recalls, while acknowledging that it will invariably come down to seeing boots on the ground again before final decisions are made.

“The reality is, for a greenfield site development, companies really want to come and see that for themselves. With Covid and the restrictions internationally, that hasn’t always been possible. But we hope now, with things progressing, with international travel opening up again, we’ll be able to bring people back out to these sites.”

‘Positive position’

County Cavan, given its geographical location together with surrounding infrastructure, is in a “positive position”, considers James.

For tech firms especially, James praised the vision of Cavan County Council in opening the Cavan Digital Hub as a business development space.

“For the last number of years, we have been targetting emerging companies, growing really fast. Many of these are not internationalised yet, but we want to present that, when they’re ready, Ireland is going to be their home. PublicRelay is an example, established in 2008, came to Dublin, and we continued to engage with them and convinced them that Cavan was a good location to expand into.”

To make sure Cavan retains its place as an attractive location for investment, James is almost as often in contact with educational providers as he is with business contacts.

Skilled workforce

Access to a skilled workforce is often top of an IDA client’s list says James.

Following that, good infrastructure, access to supply chains, connectivity and amenities, and a large population base.

Of the latter, Cavan and Monaghan have certain demographic challenges that “even with the best will in the world” the IDA is going to overcome. But James says the agency is positioning both counties for the “best opportunities” that might come available. He’s well aware of the misses of the past, the most significant of which was the loss of Terradyne.

“Both counties have a very strong manufacturing and engineering base, they are close to or connected to large infrastructure such as the M3 or M50 where there exists large med-tech or micro-electronic clients, and some of those as suppliers can us the cost advantages of being based somewhere like Cavan.”

James welcomes the fact the door is easy pushed when approaching third level providers about courses they know could help market the region better to prospective FDI clients.

The Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence (AMTCE) located in the Xerox Technology Park, Dundalk, established by Louth and Meath ETB is one such example of that.

Another, is the Cavan-Monaghan ETB’s plan to spend €2 million on a Training Centre of Excellence for Supply Chain, Logistics and Procurement, which will focus on robotics, 3D printing, and drone technology to address skills gaps and provide stimulus to cross border trade.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Monaghan, €5 million is to be spent on a biotechnology research centre that could employ as many as 250 highly trained biotech specialists, and in doing so completely transform the local economy.

“I regularly engage with the ETBs, the technical universities, and work with them specifically to work with employers in our portfolio. Employers are aware of the needs of employers, and it’s so important to achieve that now, and potentially into the future. The likes of Dundalk, it’s an institute not just for Dundalk, but for the region. The same with Athlone and Sligo. Again, the benefit for Cavan is we have that close connection, access to Dublin, Maynooth, Galway, and also the universities in Northern Ireland, that’s as equally important. We need those partnerships.”

The ‘B’ word

There are opportunities too for the region arising out of Brexit.

As a result of the UK splitting from Europe, the IDA won a “significant share” of investment, particularly around regulated industries - financial, pharma, and med-tech.

“In my own region in Dundalk there are two projects won there, new facilities arising out of Brexit. But we still see there are more opportunities coming out of Brexit, particularly in Northern Ireland, where they are finding major challenges attracting inward talent. So they’d be looking to the Border counties.”

He says, against a backdrop of “uncertainty” where people were trying to visualise what the Border might look like in the a post-Brexit environment, the reality has been a far-cry from lay-bys piled with truck checks and passports on show at crossing points.

“We see the benefits, especially when it comes to talent, this region situated between the two biggest cities, Belfast and Dublin, within a 90 minute drive. That’s a really strong selling point to an international market. Again, attracting inward talent from the EU, companies are already beginning to look at counties [south of the Border] within a reasonable geographic distance from their existing sites in Northern Ireland.”

Finally, James welcomes the “clarity” achieved through Ireland’s decision to accept the new OECD corporate tax deal reached last year. “It’s more of a level playing field. Tax is important, but so is political stability, infrastructure, and top of the list, access to talent rank even higher.”