Kerry breaks ground on food technology and innovation centre in Ireland

Ireland-based food ingredients and flavours group Kerry has broken ground on a €100m Global Technology and Innovation Centre in the Millennium Business Park, Naas, Ireland.

The facility, which is located on a 28 acre site, will serve the company’s global and regional customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

It is expected to be opened by the end 2014, creating 800 jobs and a further 100 positions when fully commissioned in 2016.

About 200 people are already working from the interim Kerry facilities located adjacent to the site of the new centre.

Kerry stated that the centre will give food and beverage manufacturers access to its complete range of technologies, scientific research, innovation and applications expertise.

Kerry Group chairman Denis Buckley said that the new centre will be a focal point for the company’s customer engagement activities .

"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."

The centre will feature Kerry Ingredients & Flavours’ EMEA regional management, Kerry Global Business Services and support functions.

Kerry expects the centre to bring significant career development opportunities supporting functional and business leadership development throughout the company while accelerating graduate career development, talent management and training.

Headquartered in Tralee, Ireland, Kerry offers food ingredients and flavours for food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.

The company employs 24,000 people across its 150 manufacturing facilities in 25 countries and has sales of €5.8bn.

The company’s Ingredients and Flavours segment manufactures and distributes specific ingredients and flavours, while its Consumer Foods segment manufactures and supplies added value brands and customer branded foods to the Irish and the UK markets.