Memories of Krups shared by former Limerick staff

“EVERYBODY knew everybody here. A lot of families worked here. You wouldn’t come across it anywhere else.”

The words of Caherdavin man Anthony Coleman, who worked at Roxboro electrical appliance firm Krups for more than 25 years in after-sales care.

He spoke as staff of the company, once a mainstay of the Limerick economy, reunited for an exhibition to mark 25th years since the vast factory’s closure.

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It’s rare enough for people to enjoy going to work daily. But that was the case at Krups, if the testimony of some of its former workers is anything to go by.

“It was just fantastic. I loved being here,” said Dorothy Coleman, married to Anthony for 40 years.

“The people, definitely,” is what Corbally man Noel Curtin, a former electrical assembly manager, said when asked what he misses most about Krups.

Pictured above, former Krups staff Noel Curtin, Corbally and Frank Harty of Caherdavin

The Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership (LEDP) facility in Roxboro, on the former site of the vast factory, is playing host to the exhibition marking the 25 years Krups spent here.

Free to view, it’s open between 8am and 4pm up until next Friday, October 25.

Old toastie machines, hairdryers and telephones are among the many items captured for posterity, as well as newspaper cuttings - including from the Limerick Leader - and photographs from down through the years.

It’s all been put together by the Limerick Museum in collaboration with University of Limerick’s Centre for Irish German studies.

Krups opened in Limerick in 1964, and was truly one of the city’s first foreign direct investors.

The firm was founded in north-west Germany in 1866 by Robert Krups, who had learned skills from his blacksmith father, also Robert, opening a factory in the city of Solingen.

It was in 1961 Krups began scouting locations in Limerick, with its executives settling on a site in Roxboro.

Not only did they build a 45,000 square foot factory, but they also constructed a small estate of homes with a swimming pool for staff.

Dr Heinz Wittmann, the managing director of Krups, told this newspaper, upon the factory opening, that Limerick was picked over Shannon due to its “excellent port facilities”.

Initially, 170 employees began work on day one producing hairdryers, toasters, bathroom scales and food mixers, which were designed in Germany but assembled in Roxboro.

By the time the factory was formally opened two years later, there were more than 600 people on site producing 3,000 appliances a day.

At its peak the firm would have employed more than 1,200 people in Limerick.

By the 1980s, it’s annual wage bill was IR£9m - still huge today, but astronomical 40 years ago.

In its first 20 years, it had tripled its footprint here.

Staff worked hard, but they also played hard, with soccer teams, arts groups and golf societies the norm.

The exhibition curators have said its staff were “the heart of the factory”.

“I’d really miss working with the gang,” smiled Dorothy Coleman, who worked in Krups for almost 25 years.

Noel Curtin was full of praise for the way Krups treated its staff, pointing to their pay policies, and the “very humane manner” with which it engaged.

“Krups opened in Limerick at a critical time when it was changing from the old type of industry to a more modern type of industry. It was very new for us and much welcomed,” he added.

Anthony added: “In its heyday, if you walked through this factory, it would take you 10 minutes to go from start to finish. Our products’ quality was second to none.”

Sadly, the good times were not to last.

The advent of the single European market in 1992 opened the doors to goods which were able to be produced more cheaply elsewhere on the continent.

Market conditions in the Far East and Russia complicated matters too.

The workforce at Krups - now in the control of French firm Moulinex - had fallen to 600 people by 1995.

Friday, October 30 , 1998, was a black day for the local economy as Krups-Moulinex management announced the wind-down of the factory and the loss of its last 500 jobs.

But given the number of staff who were going to the southside daily, the impact was inevitably felt in other industries.

On the day of the closure, an RTE News reporter met a local greengrocer bemoaning the news, with others predicting 700 jobs would be impacted on top of the 500 initial redundancies.

The factory stayed open for a few months longer to complete final orders, before the doors closed in mid-1999.

Frank Harty of Caherdavin chronicled a series of pictures from his 25 years at Krups for the exhibition. He was present the day operations ceased.

“I remember when all the equipment was taken out of the factory. The roof was leaking a bit. There were pools of water. I stood up in the top corner of the factory and could look diagonally to the far end of it. I heard a pigeon cooing somewhere. It tore at my heart-strings,” he recalled.

He admitted to being a “bit nervy” revisiting the site 25 years on.

Frank now works, using the skills he picked up at Krups, in house maintenance.

Noel took on a role which he admits is “diametrically opposite” to what he was doing in Krups - in the tourist industry. He became a tour-guide, recognised across Ireland for his work.

The Corbally man then moved to become a guide on Spain's Camino Way, something he still does to this day.

From the ashes of the Krups factory came the LEDP, which was set up to support workers hit by the devastating closure.

An independent, not-for-profit charity, for the last 25 years it has facilitated job creation, education, upskilling and benevolent projects.

There are now 35 enterprises and over 700 jobs and 2,000 training places being facilitated from the former factory site in Limerick.