A new business was launched in Westport over Christmas when Enda Kenny TD officiated at the opening of engineering business Horizon West, a high tech start-up delivering technical support services to manufacturers in the life sciences, electronics, and other knowledge based sectors. Horizon West expects to double its current workforce to 20 within the next year.
Horizon West has already secured a significant contract with a Mayo based pharmaceutical company and is targeting other multinational and indigenous manufacturing enterprises. The west of Ireland is widely recognised as home to a noteworthy life sciences cluster.
Speaking at the launch, Deputy Kenny recognised the value of Horizon West to the region. “This is an example of confidence at a time of crisis,” he said. “Having a business like Horizon West operating in the west is an invaluable resource for existing manufacturers. It is also a key benefit for multinationals considering locating in this region. The company skills are a perfect match with the medical devices, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing and food processing industries.” Dep Kenny also stated his wish to “be able to demonstrate by 2016 that Ireland is the best small country in the world in which to do business”.
The core services offered by Horizon West are managed technical resources, engineering project management, and productivity support. When any manufacturing organisation is expanding, upgrading systems or retrofitting, Horizon West can supply and manage the technical resources support it requires in order to complete the project efficiently, cost effectively, and with the highest quality engineering. This could be a huge multinational enterprise or a smaller indigenous manufacturing business.
Horizon West was set up by six partners: Aidan Corcoran, MD, (BEng mechanical eng ), Seamus Reidy, VP and operations director, (BEng production engineering ), Hubert Halligan, senior director, (BSc polymer technology ), Mark McLean, senior director, (BEng mechanical engineering, MSC physics ), Mark O’Neill, senior director, (BTech manufacturing engineering ), and Seamas Moneley, senior director, (BEng biomedical engineering ).
