Shannon industrial estate (geograph 1873955)

The Shannon Free Zone is a , international

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

adjacent to

Shannon Airport Shannon Airport ( ga, Aerfort na Sionainne) is an international airport located in County Clare in the Republic of Ireland. It is adjacent to the Shannon Estuary and lies halfway between Ennis and Limerick. The airport is the third busiest ai ...

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

, in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is 18 km from

Ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...

and 20 km from

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

. It was established in 1959, as the world's first "modern"

free-trade zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re- exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to cu ...

. Businesses based on the site enjoyed special tax incentives on staff and profits until 2003, which attracted a large number of multinational companies to the area.

History

In the late 1950s,

was almost entirely dependent on transit passengers and refuelling for trans-Atlantic flights. With indicators that commercial aircraft would soon have the range to bypass the airport, the airport's then director,

Brendan O'Regan Brendan O'Regan CBE (1917–2008) was an Irish businessman responsible for developing Shannon Airport, inventing the concept of the duty-free shop and transforming the Shannon Region of Ireland. He was involved in promoting peace in Northern Irel ...

, submitted a proposal for a special manufacturing and tax incentive zone to be created in the vicinity of the airport. This would create employment and promote Shannon Airport as a destination for air traffic in itself. The site adjacent to the airport was established in 1959, with a second zone, Smithstown, following a number of years later. The Shannon Free Zone was intended to attract investment in exchange for tax incentives and tariff reductions. While many of these incentives have since ceased, as of 2019, there were reportedly more than 100 international firms employing more than 8,000 people based at the Shannon Free Zone. Companies who have invested at Shannon have included

Element Six Element Six is a company specialised in providing synthetic diamond, cubic boron nitride and other superhard materials for industrial use.Part of the De Beers Group, Element Six employs over 1,900 people and its primary manufacturing sites are ...

(formerly DeBeers Industrial Diamonds),

GECAS GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) was an Irish–American commercial aviation financing and leasing company. AerCap acquired the company from GE Capital on November 1, 2021. GECAS was the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company in ...

GE Sensing GE Measurement & Control Solutions is an affiliate business of Baker Hughes specializing in the design and manufacture of sensing elements, devices, instruments, and systems that enable customers to monitor, protect, control, and validate the sa ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Lufthansa Technik Lufthansa Technik AG ('Lufthansa Engineering', often referred to simply as “LHT”) provides worldwide maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft, engines, and components. It is a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Headquarte ...

, Zimmer and UCB. Until 2014, the Shannon Free Zone was managed by

Shannon Development Shannon Development (legally the ''Shannon Free Airport Development Company Limited'' formerly known as SFADCO) was an important regional development body for the Shannon Region of Ireland. Its area in the lower River Shannon basin comprised al ...

, an

Irish government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The governm ...

agency. As of 2020, it is managed by Shannon Commercial Properties, a commercial semi-state company and part of Shannon Group plc.

References

External links

Official website
Geography of County Clare Industrial parks Special economic zones 1959 establishments in Ireland {{clare-geo-stub