Kerry to set up food technology centre in Ireland

Ireland-based food ingredients and flavours group Kerry plans to set up a €100m food technology centre in Naas, County Kildare, Ireland, in order to cater to its customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

The Kerry Global Technology & Innovation Centre will act as a key hub for customer engagement activities, allowing strategic customers to access the company’s technologies, scientific research, and innovation and applications expertise across food, beverage and pharmaceutical areas.

Kerry chief executive Stan McCarthy said that the construction of the new centre is in line with the company’s strategy for sustainable growth and will provide customers with access to the company’s technical and innovation capability, improve product differentiation and offer greater speed to market.

"Working in tandem with the group’s existing technology and innovation facilities, the new centre will focus group-wide capability to drive strategic customer engagement and sustainable growth," McCarthy added.

Located on a 28-acre site in the Millennium Business Park, the centre will feature Kerry Ingredients & Flavours’ EMEA regional management, Kerry Global Business Services and support functions.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2013, and the centre will create 800 jobs in 2015 and an additional 100 jobs when fully commissioned by 2016. Nearly half of the jobs are expected to be in research and development.

Kerry offers food ingredients and flavours for food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. For the full-year 2011, the company reported a 10.8% rise in adjusted earnings of €449.1m, while revenue climbed 6.4% to €5.3bn.