Dec. 12 - The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mary Coughlan T.D., announced today that the Government had approved grant assistance to support a major expansion to the Glanbia Innovation Centre at Leggetsrath Business Park, Kilkenny.
Minister Coughlan said that the Government had agreed to an Enterprise Ireland support package of €6.3 million towards investment of €21 million in new activity by Glanbia. This investment will further support Glanbia’s innovation programme which is at the heart of the Group’s growth strategy and will contribute to the development and commercialisation of new products with proprietary customer solutions and applications. It will also assist in the creation of a critical mass of highly experienced experts in food research.
“This flagship investment will see 23 additional highly qualified R&D jobs at the Centre on top of the 25 already in place, making it the largest dedicated R&D centre for a dairy food company in Ireland. This type of investment meets national objectives under my Department’s Agri Vision 2015 Plan of Action, which encourages companies to move towards higher value added products”, Minister Coughlan said.
Speaking on behalf of Glanbia, Group MD John Moloney said Glanbia has a significant investment in R&D in Ireland which will be further enhanced with this programme. “We are committed to the expansion of the Group Innovation Centre in Kilkenny and this investment will further enhance our nutritional and functional food development programmes in line with our aggressive growth targets.
Mike Feeney, Director of Food in Enterprise Ireland, strongly endorsed the Government support for the project and added that Glanbia’s investment programme will impact significantly on Enterprise Ireland’s strategic objectives for the dairy industry, which encourages the establishment of strong Irish based R&D centres of excellence. “The investment will act as an excellent demonstrator to the Irish dairy sector”, Mr Feeney concluded.