SOME 200 new jobs have been announced at two Cork companies trading in food processing and business outsourcing .
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney disclosed the new posts at Kepak Cork’s consumer food facility in Watergrasshill during a visit to the plant yesterday. The meat-processing company said it had already created 60 of those jobs and another 40 would follow next year.
The facility employs almost 600 people in meat processing and consumer foods marketing.
Separately, recruitment is under way to fill 100 new positions at customer contact management provider Voxpro in Cork city.
The new multilingual and technical positions, which will see the company’s workforce grow to 330 over the next three months, were announced by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
He said more job announcements could be expected in the region in the coming months.
Kepak said the new jobs were as a result of innovation, growth and investment. Its core business involves the portioning and packing of chilled meat packs for the Musgrave Group’s SuperValu and Centra stores. More than 400 people work in this business unit.
Kepak Cork employs another 150 people in a business unit that processes a range of “slow-cooked” own-label and branded consumer meats, as well as the Big Al’s branded burger range.
Kepak Group’s managing director John Horgan said the company’s Cork plant was now one of the largest employers in the east Cork area. “We are investing in the site to ensure it remains best-in-class and to expand the production capability to service a growing consumer demand for slow-cooked meats.”
Mr Horgan said it was contributing about €200 million annually to the local economy when the buying of livestock and raw materials was taken into account.
Mr Coveney said the partnership with the Musgrave Group had been a huge success for both parties and for the Cork hinterland.
He said the future for Irish food lay in constantly adding value through innovation in order to compete on international markets.
At the Voxpro plant, Mr Kenny said Cork had a number of advantages and a great future.
Established 14 years ago by chief executive Dan Kiely and his wife Linda, Voxpro initially employed six people.
It now provides technical customer management in business process outsourcing to more than 300 organisations, ranging from local enterprises to multinational corporations.
Staff provide an “unseen link” connecting businesses to their clients 24 hours a day through customer service, technical support, appointment management, back-office processing and telemarketing.
“In 2010, we created 160 new jobs. Today, I’m delighted to announce that we are actively recruiting for an additional 100 people for a variety of customer management positions in seven different languages,” Mr Kiely said.
