A food manufacturing plant capable of making 500,000 sandwiches a week will employ 200 people in Finglas, Dublin, after it goes into production next year. Food Brokers, which currently distributes 80,000 sandwiches a week under a joint venture partnership agreement, is to build the 3,000 square metre facility as part of an Enterprise Ireland grant-assisted venture involving a total investment of £7 million.
Mr Tom Brennan, the joint managing director of the family-run business, said yesterday that the venture was one of the biggest indigenous food start-ups ever to receive State aid. The pre-packed sandwich typically has a 30 per cent profit margin, he said. The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, in announcing the project, said significant opportunities were to be found in the £70 million sandwich supply sector which has an annual market growth rate of 20 per cent.
The Avonmore Waterford Group (AWG) Investment and Development funds, and Irish Pride Bakeries are also contributing a total of £1.5 million to the venture which will create 200 jobs under a three-year expansion programme, serving the retail and catering markets.
The funds were established in the wake of the Avonmore Foods and Waterford Foods merger to assist communities affected by the re-structuring programme. In addition, £1 million has been secured through a Business Expansion Scheme investment from J&E Davy BES Fund, Bloxham Stockbrokers and Cooney Taggart BES Funds.
According to Mr Brennan, Food Brokers, a family-run business, is the market leader in the sector, holding 19 per cent of the market. It currently operates a joint venture agreement with Gate Gourmet, a Dublin Airport-based catering company which will end when Food Brokers begins producing 350,000 sandwiches weekly next September.
"While once people would sit around and have a formal break, now that is changing. With that change in lifestyle, people are demanding something wholesome and nutritious," he said. He said the company was in an advanced stage of negotiations with Boots Chemists, the second largest sandwich supplier in Britain after Marks & Spencer, to service their Northern Irish market, a contract worth about £1.5 million.
The new production facility at the Poppintree Industrial Estate, Finglas, would cost over £6 million and would provide a highly automated and sanitised processing system. "All materials entering the production hall must be sanitised at the point of entry. Similarly, all staff must be screened and wear protective clothing," he said.
Jobs would in the management, supervision, tele-sales and production areas, Mr Brennan added.
