Mullingar firm creates 15 new jobs
A Mullingar-based solar panel manufacturer has announced the creation of 15 new jobs over the next year.
According to Let’s Talk Solar co-founder James Gorham, the Lough Sheever Corporate Park firm, which already employs 35 people in the town, is taking on extra staff in the second quarter of next year due to “a new status for our products set to be announced in the coming weeks”.
The firm's new roles include two roofers/carpenters, six plumbers and two electricians.
Mr Gorham founded Let’s Talk Solar with partner Michael Keane in 2011 and started trading in 2012. The company is the first in Ireland to provide central heating and hot water from solar energy within the one system. The key piece of technology needed to make the system work – the fusion elite cylinder – was invented by co-founder, Michael Keane.
The beauty of Let’s Talk Solar’s technology, says the company, is that it takes its energy from daylight rather than sunlight, which makes it ideally suited to the Irish climate.
While the solar panels the firm uses are manufactured in Germany and the cylinders are made in Antrim, the components are assembled in Mullingar. “We then install them in businesses and homes across the country,” Mr Gorham says.
The news that his firm is hiring 15 new people for its Mullingar base is a sign that it is moving in the right direction, Mr Gorham says.
“We have solidified the business and are now going from strength to strength.”
It’s been an eventful few months for Let’s Talk Solar. In addition to the new jobs and winning the Best New Business Award at the Midlands Gateway Chamber Awards in May, on Thursday the firm signed a five-year deal worth €7.5 million with the largest solar panel manufacturer in Germany, Ritter Solar.
Ritter will manufacture Let’s talk Solar’s unique solar-panel using its CPC reflectors and direct flow technology.
Speaking of the announcement, MD of Let’s talk Solar, Mr Keane said: “We view this partnership as a strategic step in the ongoing development of our business. This investment in Ritter Solar will ensure consistent delivery of the highest-possible quality and first-class industry standards that Let’s talk Solar strives for.
“Ritter Solar are renowned for the world-class quality of their manufacturing processes and commitment to achieving ongoing customer satisfaction, qualities that we combine with cutting-edge design, pioneering technology and a 10-year warranty to produce the most reliable and sustainable central heating systems on the market.”