OtterBox hangs on for ride on the Celtic Tiger

FORT COLLINS – Fans of OtterBox, the Fort Collins manufacturer of all modes and grades of cases for mobile phones, digital readers and other electronic devices, aren’t shy about expressing their zeal for the company. From Scotland, one devoted customer has made several YouTube videos extolling the specs of the Defender Series cases, made to survive high impacts and harsh environments, by standing on his OtterBox-encased iPad like a doormat, and then tossing it like a Frisbee.

OtterBox public relations staff do not sanction such tests, although they also proudly note the Defender cases are made to withstand such abuse. And they also mention that despite the punishing conditions in the United Kingdom and the European Union – both physical and economic – the company is enduring just fine.

Last September, OtterBox opened its first international office in Cork, Ireland, to handle sales and branding in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. But just a few months later, Ireland was asking for help with a debt crisis that had European Union leaders bracing for another national banking meltdown, such as occurred in Greece at the start of 2010, and deeper financial chaos through the EU. A subsequent financial bailout and civil unrest in Ireland have shaken the country, but OtterBox and its Irish office have persevered as if protected by an invincible shell.

“We operate in markets throughout the region, not just in Ireland, and while there are banking difficulties in Ireland, these have not had an adverse effect on our overall business,´ said Rhona Cashman, the company’s Ireland office spokesperson, via e-mail.

Remarkable growth

As a company, OtterBox might not be indestructible, but the last year has been marked by remarkable success. Its engineers continue to design cases and shells for mobile devices, almost as quickly as they’re released to the market, and the company has expanded its product lines to e-readers and tablets, such as the iPad, Nook and Kindle.

In 2010, the company almost doubled its staff size, and the total number of employees should top 300 this year, according to Kristen Tatti, a spokeswoman in the Fort Collins offices.

Building on its worldwide growth, OtterBox decided to open a Europe-based office last year. Establishing an international office allows the company to direct its marketing and production toward regional interests, Tatti said, including developing for the different telecommunications formats, carriers and products.

“The decision to locate our office in Ireland was based on a variety of factors,” added Cashman. “Not just economic conditions, but also the geographic location, the educated workforce, infrastructure, access to markets, (and) membership in the EU.”

In particular, Ireland’s respected universities and its system of free education for all students through college – as long as they attend school within the European Union – were attractive to company executives. OtterBox also saw an obvious benefit in setting up shop in an English-speaking country.

Celtic Tiger in trouble

Through much of the 2000s, the Irish economy was its own draw for business, earning the nickname of the Celtic Tiger and outpacing growth in France and Germany. Rising housing prices, easy-to-land home loans, and modest tax rates resembled the boom conditions of the American Southwest.

But with housing and banking bubbles that resembled those of Las Vegas, the Celtic Tiger found a thorn in its paw when several of its largest banks began failing in 2008. Ireland’s national recession has overlapped with the global financial collapse and, as the government tallied a massive deficit over 2009 and 2010, the country has suffered through spiking unemployment rates and public protests.

In November, just two months after OtterBox opened for business in Cork last fall, the Irish government approached officials of the EU and the International Monetary Fund to request a bailout from its debt crisis. The financial failure brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy and threatened to further destabilize the euro currency and to trigger fiscal disasters for other EU countries.

The bailout, supported by the EU, is estimated to be around 85 billion euro- roughly $115 billion – and the country’s recession has led to recent calls for the resignation of the prime minister.

For the moment, none of these setbacks seem to be fazing OtterBox’s operations. The company has already increased its staff in Cork from six to 16 employees, and it plans to continue hiring more employees.

“Our decision to locate here (in Ireland) is a long-term decision, and we have confidence in the market in which we operate,” Cashman said.

Further, the company is also planning to open a Hong Kong office to handle growth in the Asia Pacific region, including China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The office should be open with a handful of staff by the coming summer, Tatti said, and the company expects to have a dozen employees in Hong Kong by 2012.

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