Newbridge Networks Ltd – which designs, manufactures and markets a series of universal voice and data multiplexer products – this week opened new European headquarters, in Newport, Gwent, as part of an expansion programme that includes a major new contract with DEC. Newbridge, formed in 1986 by Terry Matthews, co founder of Mitel Corp, has opened the new UKP2m, 33,000 square foot factory – which benefitted from a UKP750,000 grant from the Welsh Office and should employ 250 by 1991 – to mirror the firm’s international headquarters based in Ottawa, Canada. The new site will be involved in the production of all the company’s products, 30% of which will be exported to the continent; main products include 1008 MainStreet, 1083 MainStreet and 1032 MainStreet Data Controllers, with their associated EasyStreet software, as well as a line of desktop networking products that, it says, can be networked with digital trunk multiplexers to create a wide area voice and data network. The new DEC contract – described as a multi-million pound operation – involves supply, installation and support of the 3600 MainStreet multiplexer and the 4600 Network Management System for DEC’s pan-European internal speech and data network. A limited private offering in Canada raised $Can14m for the company in December 1987, and Newbridge hopes the current expansion will help to triple last year’s UKP9m worldwide turnover.
