Ireland, the growth story of the 1990s for international investing, is sending some of its sons and daughters to Wales to find their fortunes. A major U.S. manufacturer has joined the parade by closing a plant that it acquired in 2002, and moving operations across the Irish Sea to northern Wales because it can serve its customers better from the British mainland.

Early this year, Technicolor Home Entertainment Services (THES), the digital cinema technology subsidiary of Thomson Media, closed its plant in Youghal, Co. Cork. It moved equipment and operations to existing facilities in Cwmbran, Wales, and Poland. THES bought the Youghal facility in June 2002 from Eastman Kodak.

A Technicolor spokesman said the Irish site was no longer viable for shipping products quickly into Europe. The Welsh facility has a better location for getting products quickly to British customers, he said. "The decision is not a reflection of the hard work and contribution of Technicolor's employees in Cork," he added.

The Cwmbran plant has manufactured more than 7 million Microsoft third-party Xbox units since 2002, according to Technicolor. The company has extensive distribution and manufacturing agreements with Microsoft and other companies.

Cwmbran was the first Technicolor facility that Microsoft selected as an Authorized Replicator in Europe for the manufacture, packaging and distribution of third-party Xbox software in Europe. Microsoft made the selection in March 2002. In May 2003, Microsoft also chose Technicolor's Luxembourg facility as an Authorized Replicator. This designation meant that Technicolor could service Microsoft-licensed Xbox developers in all European countries and markets from two strategically located plants, Technicolor said.

Technicolor is part of Thomson's Digital Media Solutions division. It provides complete DVD/CD and videocassette manufacturing and distribution services for leading Hollywood studios, software developers, game manufacturers, record labels, direct marketers and others.

Additionally, a telecommunications service company, 118UK, a subsidiary of the Irish firm Conduit, opened a customer service center in Swansea, in South Wales, in March of this year to complement its existing center in Cardiff. 118UK provides directory inquiry services for telecommunications carriers, a business that opened up when BT's monopoly ended. 118UK initially planned to hire 350 people for the Swansea center. It added another 100 positions this summer. The Cardiff facility has 850 employees.

"When we made the initial 350-job announcement in Swansea in March (2003), we ensured we had spare capacity to take on more staff," said Gareth Vaughan, 118's human resources director. "Business has gone extremely well since deregulation, hence the need to recruit more staff in Swansea."

In a completely different industry, Caerneagle Furniture Ltd. manufactures quality pine furniture at a factory built by the Welsh Development Agency on the outskirts of Caernnarfon. This factory is the British base for the company, whose parent Gleneagle Woodcrafts Ltd., has its headquarters in Meath, outside Dublin.

The Caernnarfon factory manufactures competitively priced furniture with high quality finishes for bedrooms, kitchens and dining rooms and a range of divans and pine-framed beds. The company expanded to the UK mainland to cater to the growing UK furniture market.

Over the last 20 years, Ireland has been the source of 56 investment projects into Wales, involving 4,400 new and 751safeguarded jobs. Those companies are part of the community of 500 international companies-200 of them from North America-with operations in Wales. General Electric, Ford Motor Co., Georgia-Pacific Corp., Curtiss Wright, Johnson & Johnson, and Alcoa are just some of the household names that have been in Wales for years, and have reinvested in growing facilities there.