Patrick Purcell, the founder of Shannon based drilling equipment maker, Mincon as stepped down as chairman of the company.
Earlier this week, Mincon announced a 14 percent drop in operating profits to €6.9m in the first six months of 2019. The eighty one year old will remain on as a non-executive director of the group which has already cut an approximate 10 percent of their workforce in 2019 as part of an attempt to reduce expenditure by €3m.
Purcell founded Mincon in 1977 alongside his wife Mary and floated it on the stock market six years ago. The company now has offices in fifteen countries across five continents. The family still owns 57 percent of the business which designed and manufactured the drill that assisted in the freeing of 33 trapped Chilean miners in 2010.
Earlier this year, Patrick and the Purcell family were named at 111th in The Irish Independent’s 2019 Rich List worth €145m, up €10m on the previous year.
