In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Laffan leaves Waterford Stanley

Waterford Stanley's Michael Laffan is stepping down as managing director of the range cookers and stoves manufacturer at the end of September to pursue other business interests after overseeing the sale of the company last year to Aga Group.

Owen Power, currently head of sales at Waterford Stanley, will become commercial director and replace Mr Laffan as Aga country manager. He will report directly to Geoff Harrop, managing director of Aga Rayburn UK, and will carry out all of Mr Laffan's responsibilities.

Aga acquired Waterford Stanley from Mr Laffan and US venture capital company Pricoa Capital 13 months ago. Waterford Stanley experienced a sometimes-painful restructuring over the past few years that involved staff numbers being cut by nearly 70 per cent in an attempt to reduce costs. It returned to the black in 2004.

There will no longer be a position of managing director at Waterford Stanley as Aga operates in its 12 regions only with country managers, a spokeswoman said. However, the company's manufacturing plant in Waterford will be closer aligned to Aga in the UK and will share functions such as research and development, she said.

Mr Harrop thanked Mr Laffan for his "tremendous input into the turnaround and remodelling of Waterford Stanley and for establishing it as the number one brand leader in Ireland".

Airtricity secures €70m funding

Renewable energy group Airtricity has secured €70 million worth of funding for the development of its 48 megawatt wind farm at Bindoo in Co Cavan.

Norddeutsche Landesbank was the lead arranger for the transaction, providing a €60 million debt facility over 15 years, while Airtricity itself provided €10 million in equity.

Construction of the wind farm began last December and is scheduled to be fully operational in April next year.

On completion it will have 32 wind turbines generating enough power for about 30,000 homes. It will be Airtricity's second-largest wind farm project on the Irish mainland.

Fahey leaves Irish Life for AIBIM

Irish Life Investment Managers head of portfolio management Oliver Fahey has left to join AIB Investment Managers as head of pensions marketing. He is the second former Irish Life executive to join AIBIM in recent months, following its appointment of Eugene Kiernan as head of multimanager investments.

Providence awards contract

Exploration group Providence Resources said yesterday it has awarded a contract to Fugro Data Surveys to carry out a detailed study of a 1,500 km section of its Dunquin prospect off the southwest coast of Ireland.

The contract, which has been awarded in conjunction with Providence's partners in the project ExxonMobil and Sosina, is the largest study of its kind carried out offshore Ireland. The results of the programme will allow the companies to better define the future potential of the site.

Creamerey 'broadly on plan'

Donegal Cremeries has had a "satisfactory start" to 2006 with all businesses performing "broadly on plan", managing director Ian Ireland told the group's annual meeting yesterday.

Chairman Lexie Tinney told shareholders that the group had faced "many challenges" last year, particularly in its milk business.

The group has since integrated a number of dairy plants and shareholders were told this has gone to plan.