Avocent International is to shed 64 jobs at its Shannon base as part of cost cutting measures.According to Bizworld, IT specialist Avocent, which is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S., is making the cuts 'to enhance competitiveness, improve efficiency and reduce the company's cost structure across its European locations'. The reductions will affect R and D, marketing and technical support functions as well as the transfer of Asia operations from Shannon to the company's recently established Asian hub in Singapore.
Avocent International employs 168 staff at its offices in Shannon and Dublin and will today enter collective redundancy discussions with the staff affected by these measures. The Shannon Ireland facility will remain the centre of support for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It was proposed that all redundancies will be effective throughout August to December 2008.
The impact of the consolidation will result in a reduction in employment levels at Avocent's Shannon operations from 160 to 103, including its R and D functions, which were grown indigenously at Shannon. The functions of Avocent's Dublin office will also be transferred to the U.S., creating seven redundancies, as part of these rationaliastion measures.
Avocent Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Avocent International at Shannon Mr Kieran MacSweeney said today: "It is with great regret that we have had to effect these changes as we had grown organically at Shannon and were extremely proud of our achievements in that regard but significant challenges have arisen that we have had to adapt to.'
'Nevertheless, our Shannon Ireland facility will remain the centre of support for EAME to include Finance, HR, IT, Customer Support, Professional Services, Quality, Operations and Distribution and we look forward to consolidating our presence here now that these difficult decisions have been made.'
Avocent sells IT infrastructure management solutions that reduce operating costs, simplify management and increase the availability of critical IT environments around the clock.
