NEWS


Irish manufacturers resume hiring despite slump in activity


A slump in Irish manufacturing activity deepened slightly again last month as output was at one of its lowest levels on record, but firms resumed adding staff amid a tight labour market. The AIB S&P Global manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for Ireland fell to 47.0 in July from 47.3 in June, its lowest mark in three years and staying below the line separating growth from contraction for the fifth successive month. Reuters reported that, like in other euro zone


countries, Ireland’s services sector has continued to boom and offset the downturn in manufacturing to keep the economy in expansion mode after being the fastest growing across the bloc last year. Manufacturers who responded to the survey said the weakness in Ireland continued to emanate from muted demand and pushed the sub-index measuring output to 42.2 from 45.0 in June, a low only previously reached during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008-09 global financial crisis. However, firms modestly increased their


Wing to begin delivering medical products by drone in South Dublin


Wing, the drone delivery company operated by Google’s parent Alphabet, is to launch a medical product delivery service in South Dublin. RTÉ said the firm has partnered with


Apian, a UK based healthcare and logistics company, that connects healthcare providers with drone operators and services.


headcount after cutting staff in June and sustained falls in input costs and output charges offered them and their clients some respite. The contraction in the headline Irish


manufacturing rate was also not as deep as in the euro zone as a whole or neighbouring Britain, where flash data pointed to readings of 42.7 and 45.0 respectively.


Bis Henderson launches


‘Breathing Space’ campaign Supply chain and logistics specialist, Bis Henderson Space, has launched ‘Breathing Space’, a major multi-media campaign promoting its innovative Managed Warehouse Solutions concept. ‘Breathing Space’reflects the freedom


of a pay-as-you-need pallet storage model that allows businesses to flex their storage capacity according to immediate needs – giving organisations the agility to grow and respond swiftly to new opportunities with less exposure to risk.


The marketing initiative is aimed at promoting the benefits of flexible storage to businesses of all sizes that require additional storage space to secure growth or to provide greater agility at peak.


Over 4.5 million square feet of ‘Breathing


Space’ is available and readily accessible across the UK and Ireland. Steve Purvis, managing director at Bis


Henderson Space, said: “Most industrial, manufacturing or retail businesses now need to be highly agile in the way they respond to changes within their markets, whether that be moving quickly to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise, or scaling back to save on costs.


“Our solution gives businesses the ability to flex to market needs without major capital commitments to worry about or long-term leases and complex contracts – including stamp duty and dilapidation costs at the end – creating valuable ‘breathing space’ for decisionmakers.”


However, Ms Nash said the range is around 20 kilometres from where some of the providers will be located or where the drones will be based. The development follows the launch by Wing of delivery trials in Lusk in Co Dublin in recent months. During that time the company worked with the regulator, partners and the local community to test and demonstrate its delivery services. “At this point we’ve kind of done those


deliveries, we’ve done the community engagement, we’ve worked with the regulators,” Ms Nash said. “And so as part of our natural evolution it was time to expand into another use case and that use case will be healthcare.”


The project will see pharmacy items, lab samples, medical devices and supplies delivered from suppliers to providers such as hospitals and pharmacies.


“There is a place where the drone will


live,” Shannon Nash, chief financial officer of Wing told RTÉ News.


“It will then go from that place to the


provider and back and forth. And so we’re working out the details of those exact locations, but think about it as business-to-business transport in terms of where the drone will go, pick up, drop off, go back.”


The company is not disclosing which


partners have signed up to the service yet or the precise geographical areas of south Dublin where it will operate.


4 July/August 2023 Irish Manufacturing


www.irish-manufacturing.com


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