Ireland is the digital hub of the European Union, home to Google, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and Amazon. It has young vibrant workforce and favourable tax regime with multiple daily connections to North America and all major EU cities. These factors ensure the highest returns on investment for companies choosing to do business from Ireland – making it an ideal location as a base to serve the European market.
The South and Mid-West region of Ireland comprises of the counties Cork, Kerry and Limerick has a population of 854,5000 (Census 2011) inhabitants and a wide geographic area. The region has a huge coastline, the largest deep water harbour in Europe and is the most westerly point of the EU.
Cork, the largest city in our region, is Ireland’s second biggest city, rich in talent, culture and entertainment facilities and was European Capital of Culture in 2005.
As a University City with many third level colleges including UCC and CIT, there is a high skills pool ready to meet your exact requirements from a catchment of 500,000 people within a 30 minute commute of the city. Cork is home to 35,000 students and world class research facilities with over 2000 researchers.
Many global companies have become embedded in Cork’s industrial infrastructure over the last 3 decades. Companies such as, EMC, VMware, MacAfee, Boston Scientific, Abtran, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, IBM and Apple have all found the benefits of locating in Cork to their advantage. Established in 1980, Apple's operation in Cork was the company's first base outside the US. Its European headquarters, in Cork employs nearly 3,000 people in its distribution, supply chain and back-office operations for Europe, Middle-East and Africa.
Many start-ups have emerged out of Apple over the years including Crest Solutions, Globetech and Lincor Solutions.
The traditional focus on agriculture, tourism and fishing has given way in recent years to electronics, software, biotechnology and supply chain sectors of more traditional industry. These newer sectors have centred on the major urban centres of Cork, Limerick and Tralee close to universities/research centres and spin off from foreign direct investment.