Thirty jobs are to be created at iQon Technologies as part of a £3 million (#3.8 million) expansion programme at its plant in Dundalk, Co Louth.

The PC manufacturer and IT distributor, which was formerly known as Romak Computers, has also won a £5 million contract to supply British retailer Argos, with PCs manufactured at its plant. Its products will be promoted through 28 million Argos catalogues and through Argos marketing.

The expansion programme, which is supported by Enterprise Ireland, will be funded through retained profit and additional investment by directors, the company said.

Founded in 1994 by Mr Dermot McElroy, iQon has turnover of £12 million and made this year's Deloitte & Touche Fast 50, which lists Ireland's fastest growing technology companies.

In an exclusive agreement, iQon PCs are manufactured in Ireland using Philips multimedia components and are branded "Multimedia by Philips".

The company, which will move into a new 30,000 sq ft production and distribution facility early next year as part of the investment, also unveiled a new range of PCs, notebooks and servers which it said will take it into the corporate market, competing against established global players in the Irish and UK markets.

iQon also said it was planning to expand its reseller operations in Ireland. It has announced distribution agreements with Xerox, Invensys, Maxtor, Chaintech, Teac and Enlight and is currently negotiating representation deals in the areas of multimedia products, hand-held computers, networking and storage products with a number of vendors, it said.