Major Investment: Irish Investment with Japanese Technology in Germany

One of the single biggest investments in Germany is currently being made in Leuna, a chemical-manufacturing location in Saxony-Anhalt. Ireland’s Quinn Group is building a new factory for €260 million in order to produce special synthetic materials starting in 2009.

This is also the group’s first venture into the chemicalbusiness. The company decided it should be a German-Japanese-Irish cooperative effort, with the technology coming from East Asia, the experience for building and operating the new factory from Germany, and the company management and financial resources from Ireland. Quinn had been planning to move into the chemical business for a long time. To begin with, the group bought the license to a process for the production of methymethacrylate (MMA) from a Japanese company.

MMA is a light-transmissive, synthetic material used in the production of plastic glasses and foil. “The applied process is very cost-effective and environment-friendly,” says Dermot Carey, head of Quinn Chemicals in Leuna. The planned initial production volume of 100,000 tons will mostly be delivered to Quinn’s existing plastic factories all over Europe. “It is part of our philosophy to open new business areas, which are extensions of existing fields, with new technologies and products,” Carey adds.

This is the formula for success of Sean Quinn, founder and owner of the company and today one of the richest men in Europe. In 1973, Quinn started out in the sand and gravel business. Shortly thereafter, he built new cement factories in the vicinity of his hometown Derrylin in Northern Ireland. Thanks to Ireland’s economic boom in the ’90s, the Quinn Group grew fast. Glass factories, synthetic material businesses, and heating appliance production utilities were added all over Europe. In the meantime, the family business also made a name for itself as a financial services provider and operator of hotels and shopping centers. According to the group, it now employs more than 6,000 people. ...

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