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Kerry's new centre to create 800 jobs

Tuesday, October 09 10:54:54

Irish foods giant, Kerry Group, is to build a new global technology and innovation centre in Ireland that will create 800 jobs, as well as 400 jobs in the construction phase, it said today.

The E100m investment will be part-funded by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland.

The new flagship global technology and customer innovation centre will serve as a key focal point for Kerry's customer engagement activities providing strategic customers with access to the Group's complete breadth and depth of technologies, scientific research, innovation and applications expertise across food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets.

The new centre will be built on a 28 acre site in the Millennium Business Park, Naas close to the M7 and M50 Dublin motorways and will accommodate 800 people in 2015 and a further 100 positions when fully commissioned by mid-2016.

"The new Kerry Global Technology and Innovation Centre will also include Kerry Ingredients and Flavours global and EMEA regional management, 1 Kerry Global Business Services and support functions. The new flagship centre will serve as a key focal point for Kerry's customer engagement activities providing strategic customers with access to the Group's complete breadth and depth of technologies, scientific research, innovation and applications expertise across food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets," the company said.

Speaking at the announcement in Dublin today, Stan McCarthy, Kerry Group Chief Executive said: "The establishment of this new global technology and innovation centre is consistent with the Group's 1 Kerry Strategy for Sustainable Growth, providing our customers with access to Kerry's total technical and innovation capability to optimise product differentiation in the marketplace and provide unrivalled speed to market. Working in tandem with the Group's existing technology and innovation facilities, the new Centre will focus Groupwide capability to drive strategic customer engagement and sustainable growth". Welcoming the support of the Irish Government for this project, Mr McCarthy added that the new centre would bring significant career development opportunities supporting functional and business leadership development throughout the Kerry organisation and would assist in accelerating graduate / early career development, talent management and training."