GLANBIA SAYS IT will create 76 direct jobs through a major investment in a massive new dairy facility in the south-east.
The company and the Department of Jobs believe the development will create as many as 1,530 indirect jobs.
The plant at Belview, on the border between Kilkenny and Waterford, will create 450 construction roles starting next month.
The facility – which will be worth an estimated €400 million to the domestic dairy sector, due to the quantity of domestic produce which will be processed there – is set to create 1,600 jobs between direct employment and other jobs supported by the plant by 2018.
Minister Richard Bruton said the extra employment will be see on farms as a 56 per cent increase in milk production is expected across the region.
Glanbia has 4,300 milk suppliers, the vast majority based in Ireland, and consumes 30 per cent of all Irish milk for export to over 50 countries.
The Glanbia Ireland Ingredients Limited (GIIL) plant is being part supported by Enterprise Ireland.
GIIL chief executive said the Belview would be “a significant, strategic development for our business.
“By providing this additional processing capacity we will be facilitating milk suppliers in their ambition to avail of the opportunity presented by quota abolition post-2015,” he said.
Enterprise Ireland CEO Frank Ryan said the announcement would “further secure Ireland’s standing as a world-leader in the dairy industry”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the investment was “a massive vote of confidence in Ireland and our agri-food sector”, while agriculture minister Simon Coveney described it as “a milestone in realising the tremendous potential for dairy expansion”.
The plant is likely to be good news to other Irish dairy companies, as GIIL has manufacturing contracts with eight other domestic processors which will be open to development or expansion from the Belview plant.
Construction at the facility is to begin on May 17 and is targeted for completion in spring 2015.
-Additional reporting by Sinéad O’Carroll
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