Ei mark 40 years since Mick Guinee became MD

*Gerry Murphy, Mick Guinee, Darren Gavin. Photograph: Joe Buckley

MICK GUINEE’s remarkable contribution to Ei Electronics was acknowledged last week. 

To mark forty years since Mick became Managing Director of Ei Electronics, management and staff made a presentation to the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the Shannon company. He received a specially commissioned portrait by Ennis artist, Mick O’Dea.

In the early 1980s, Mick joined what was then called the ‘Ei Company’. In 1983, he assumed the role of Managing Director.

He led a management buyout of the company in 1988. The trio of original founders, Mick, Dr Mike Byrne and Jim Duignan have remained with the business to the present time, maintaining leadership roles within the organisation, a testament to their ongoing commitment to the company, its customers and its employees

Their motivation was to maintain valuable manufacturing jobs in Shannon, and build a successful and sustainable international business.

Although now a global operation, to this day the strategy is to maintain 100% of manufacturing in Shannon. In 2022 a staggering 13 million smoke and carbon monoxide alarms were manufactured on the original site in the Shannonn Free Zone.

Turnover was approximately €4m in 1983, now forty years on Ei boasts a turnover of €400m, a global customer base and 1,250 employees worldwide.

Speaking at the presentation in Shannon, Mick remarked, “very few companies have a longevity to equal that of Ei. It is tribute to the resilience and skill of generations of people. As employees we all feel great pride in the continued success of this company and its contribution to the region over many years”.