The Centre was officially opened by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD in the presence of Minister Richard Bruton TD, Minister Simon Coveney TD and the Kerry Group board of directors.

Kerry Group officially opened a new €100m centre Global Technology and Innovation Centre located on a 28-acre site in the Millennium Business Park, Naas, Co. Kildare. The centre, which will serve Kerry’s global and regional customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, supports 800 research, product commercialisation, business development and business support jobs and will also accommodate a further 100 positions by the end of 2016.

The investment project was supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland and is the largest single investment in food innovation ever by a company in Ireland.

Speaking at the Official Opening Ceremony, Stan McCarthy, Kerry Group Chief Executive said, “Our new Global Technology and Innovation Centre will serve as a focal point for Kerry’s customer engagement activities providing key 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. In addition, it will serve as the Group’s Global Centre of Excellence for Nutrition and will optimise product differentiation in the marketplace while providing unrivalled speed to market.”

Kerry Group today is a world leader in taste and nutrition serving the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries and a leading consumer foods processing and marketing organisation in selected EU markets. From the commissioning of its first manufacturing plant in Listowel, Ireland in 1972, the Kerry organisation has grown to become a highly successful public company, having achieved sustained profitable growth with current annualised sales in excess of €5.8 billion.

Launched as a public company in 1986, the market capitalisation of the group has grown to a current level of approximately €12 billion. Kerry Group now employs over 24,000 people throughout its worldwide activities and operations.