KILDARE GENERAL, 9 July 2002: by Trish Whelan. The 527 employees of Donnelly Mirrors in Naas have been given details of the planned merger of the parent company Donnelly Corporation with automotive systems giant Magna International Inc of Ontario, Canada.
The Naas company, one of the largest employers in the area, was established in the late 1960s.
While cautioning that the merger is only at an early stage and will take from 2-4 months to complete, Human Resource manager Pat Brennan said the deal is ‘only at the early stages’.
Asked if the merger would mean more jobs for its Naas plant, Mr Brennan said it was hoped it ‘would greatly increase the possibility to get new business’. But, he added, at this stage it’s hard to tell.
Donnelly Corporation has more than 6,000 employees in 14 countries worldwide and is the second-largest global supplier of exterior and interior mirrors to the automotive industry. Its sales in 2001 were worth $850 million.
Magna has approximately 67,000 employees in 174 manufacturing operations and has 43 product development and engineering centres in 19 countries. In 2001 its sales were valued at $11 billion.
The two companies will operate under the name of Magna Donnelly and will have annual sales of over $1.2 billion.
Pat Brennan said: “If the deal goes through it will make us the No 1 mirror manufacturer and supplier in the world.”
