Danone Baby Nutrition celebrates 125 years of manufacturing Cow & Gate infant and toddler milks in Ireland with the announcement that its manufacturing facility in Wexford will be expanded, creating 45 jobs in the south-east.
The expansion plan comes from an Enterprise Ireland-supported investment of €20m that will fund a new processing and packing line, as well as lead to increased employment in areas such as operations, food science, engineering and logistics.
Infant and toddler milks are seeing growing demand across Europe and this expansion will double the capacity of the facility to 70,000 tonnes annually in finished packed product.
“This additional commitment builds on the €50m investment announced for Macroom (Co Cork) last year,” said Donal Courtney, managing director of Danone Ireland. “The combined expansion of both 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.”
Construction of the new facility began in March and is scheduled to be completed by January of next year with commercial operations commencing in February. A total of 120 people are being employed for the duration of the construction phase.
The announcement is the first of two expected in the south-east today, as the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, TD, is now on his way to EirGen Pharma before attending the South East Forum in Waterford at 3pm.
