FOOD GIANT DANONE is to create 45 new jobs in Wexford through the expansion of a major manufacturing facility in the town.

The company is investing €20 million in the facility which specialises in manufacturing specialised milks for toddlers and infants.

The newly-announced expansion follows a similar €50 million investment at the company’s other Irish facility, at Macroom in Co Cork, last year. Both investments are being supported by Enterprise Ireland.

Danone Ireland managing director Donal Courtney said the research and innovation functions which would be developed at the plants would “nutritional value of our products for infants and toddlers leading to continued growth in demand from across Europe for our milk products”.

Courtney added that the combined investment in the Wexford and Macroom sites “makes Ireland a very strategic location for the Danone Group and one that is playing a significant role in the continued growth and success of the company”.

Jobs minister Richard Bruton said the investment was “a real endorsement of the quality of our agriculture and our industry, and is great news for the South East”.

The expansion marks the 125th birthday of the Cow & Gate brand of infant and toddler milks, which is now part of the Danone group. Danone already employs 360 people in Ireland.