Henkel trio celebrate decades in Tallaght

THIS year, Henkel celebrated 150 years in business and Loctite reached 60, and three workers in the Tallaght facility have spent more than 30 years each at various roles in the company.

Operating out of Tallaght Business Park by Whitestown Industrial Estate, three long-service employees of Henkel Loctite – Deirdre Higney, Jim Byrne and Dr Liam O’Dwyer have worked at Henkel for 38, 37 and 32 years respectively, joining the company between 1988 and 1994.

The facility was first introduced into Tallaght in the 1970s and has been built up over the years, including an €18m European hub for 3D printing in 2018, with the connection between the company and the community nurtured over the years.

Liam said: “From a Tallaght point of view, a lot of people over the years would have had jobs here. A lot of families have been reared based on people working here.”

Liam is on the R&D side of things and oversees the production of consumer products seen on shelves in places like Woodies, and he noted the team has 15 nationalities from all corners of the world involved that come together in the local business park to make them.

The trio are part of the 320-strong team in the local site that work on adhesives that are used around the world, from products like Pritt sticks to world-renowned structures like Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, through the high-performance structural adhesive, Loctite EA 9497.

Deirdre is currently a raw materials planner at the company, having been in various roles over the years.

She joined the company first out of the three, Loctite, and noted that the employment landscape was different in 1988, with “very limited opportunities” but she found a home with the adhesive maker.

Deirdre said: “The 80’s was a really tough, tough time, and Loctite offered huge employment to women at that time, and they gave them fair and equal opportunity to work in an operational manufacturing environment, which wasn’t very common.

“I was that young person looking for a job, very limited opportunities.”

A merger with Loctite in 1997 meant that their Ballyfermot and Tallaght bases went under the German adhesive manufacturer’s name, and Deirdre, Jim and Liam were there when it happened.

Jim is currently in Special Projects, but spent most of his years in finance, and noted the difference since the merger.

He said: “They’ve really upped the game. We thought we were good, but they’ve really upped the game. Then, on the ‘german efficiency’ side,

[brought it] to a new level.

“That’s really important to sustain jobs in Tallaght and gives us a platform to stay here for some while.”