*Zimmer Biomet.
SHANNON is ‘punching above its weight’ when it comes to its economic output on a national scale.
Director of Manufacturing with Zimmer Biomet since July 2023, Tom O’Carroll labelled Shannon as “a great location to do business” and one that has enabled their continued growth. Last year, Zimmer was named as Best Manufacturer at the Clare Business Excellence Awards while in May it was accredited for the first time as a great place to work.
With a staff count of 500 in Shannon, Zimmer Biomet is one of the big employers in the town and adds another 500 to its workforce from its Oranmore base in Galway. “We employ about 1000 people on the west coast, that is seated in the context of the wider business which is 18,000 globally so five percent of the staff count comes from Ireland”.
Living in Meelick, Tom works between both of Zimmer’s plants. “There is a nice bit of leverage and cross-population, on any given weekend there might be a Munster vs Connacht game or Galway vs Clare and of course Limerick and Clare so there is nice banter and rivalry there”. The value of production between both sites is €300m.
Zimmer has been operating in Shannon since 2008 with Tom describing the location as “extremely well positioned”. He said, “we’ve a great track record of quality, service costs and people. Zimmer is a medical technology company, a leader in musculoskeletal healthcare, that is large orthopaedic giants so hips and knees, about two thirds of our business is hips and knees. The Shannon and Galway sites are primarily knee plants, we do other products too but our brand within Zimmer Biomet is called the persona knee and we do produce the lionshare of that product, knees contribute to about 42 percent of the company’s overall revenue, we’re really well positioned”.
Between both of the Irish plants, Zimmer has made an investment of capital equipment and facilities of more than €120m since 2023. “Zimmer Biomet has seen fit to invest in us and they believe in us, we’re a key player in the Zimmer Biomet world,” Tom noted. “Shannon is one small region within a wider Irish economy but I think it really punches above its weight in that respect”.
He continued, “Shannon is a great location to do business, there is a lovely community feel about doing business in Shannon, there’s over 300 companies in the Business Park with 10,000 people, we’ve 1000 of those. We take part in a lot of events during the year, a lot of them hosted by Shannon Chamber. It is really easy to do business in Shannon, it is very accessible, a lot of our employees walk to work, there’s a lovely community feel to doing business in Shannon. The challenges of doing business in a general sense are the cost of living, the cost of doing business, electricity, the cost of utilities is only going up, accommodation and its availability for people to move to Shannon and the wider area is a massive problem but that is a national problem”.
Tom told The Clare Echo, “Shannon is a great location to do business, there is a lovely community feel about doing business in Shannon, there’s over 300 companies in the Business Park with 10,000 people, we’ve 1000 of those. We take part in a lot of events during the year, a lot of them hosted by Shannon Chamber. It is really easy to do business in Shannon, it is very accessible, a lot of our employees walk to work, there’s a lovely community feel to doing business in Shannon. The challenges of doing business in a general sense are the cost of living, the cost of doing business, electricity, the cost of utilities is only going up, accommodation and its availability for people to move to Shannon and the wider area is a massive problem but that is a national problem”.
When it comes to dealing with challenges in Shannon, Tom said Shannon Chamber have been a massive support and called CEO Helen Downes “a tour de force. Helen is a great advocate and a great listener to take in all of those frustrations, she provides a lot of opportunities to lobby with the politicians, the American Chamber are excellent too, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland are fantastic, we liaise with all the bodies but Shannon Chamber are very local, they get and understand our problems, they are great partners”. He added, “Shannon Chamber punch above their weight in terms of performance which is down to people, it is down to Mark Nolan, Helen Downes who drive it with a passion which is clear in every event, we’ve benefitted from being a member of the Chamber, we’ve had an opportunity to give knowledge, share expertise and give a problem solving ethos to the smaller companies in the area”.
On future plans for Zimmer in Shannon, Tom outlined, “Our industry is growing at five to six percent globally a year. The investment in our sites is an indicator of the growth we have seen, we constantly have positions open from product builders on the floor to the traditional functional support in HR, finance, supply chain, engineering and operations so we do have a very healthy and well-established employee development programme. Over the last five to seven years, we’ve about sixty two percent, almost two thirds of employees who have done further education, it can be apprenticeships etc, with us and have had some sort of job change so they have changed role into the field they have studied or they have had a promotion. People are the secret sauce of any organisation, we’ve a very strong culture, it is a very positive, open and inclusive culture where we listen to employees, take their feedback and build it into their processes and in turn we get a very happy and engaged workforce, it is a great place to work”.
