Healthy Heartlands

HIGH-TECH GLOBAL COMPANIES ARE CHOOSING REGIONS IN THE HEART OF IRELAND TO LOCATE THEIR MANUFACTURING FACILITIES. DENISE MAGUIRE CAUGHT UP WITH TWO FIRMS TO FIND OUT HOW MAKING THE MIDLANDS THEIR HOME HAS BENEFITTED THEIR BUSINESS.

Ireland’s Midlands is a proven location already supporting and servicing a large number of international companies across a range of business sectors. In recent years, a number of global businesses have made the Midlands their home and alongside the advantages of being centrally located, they’re benefitting from a large talent pool, competitive property prices and a quality of life that’s second to none.

In 2019, Greenfield Global Inc., Canada’s largest producer of alcohol and fuel ethanol, announced plans to establish a new EU manufacturing headquarters in Portlaoise. Today, the company is well established in its purpose-built facility in the town’s IDA Ireland Business and Technology Park and expects to go into commercial production later this summer. Greenfield, which has its headquarters in Toronto, has operations in 12 locations across North America. The company’s extensive portfolio of products is trusted by hundreds of customers in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, life science, personal care and food, flavour and fragrance markets in over 50 countries.

Greenfield’s high-tech facility in Portlaoise holds the honour of being the first compliant NZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Building Standard) building in the country, a standard that the company was eager to reach from the beginning of the construction process. “To meet that standard, we had to make adjustments to the design and fabric of the building and we also had to ensure that energy consumption came from 20% renewables on site. To achieve that, we installed a CHP plant and air to air systems and we also increased the insulation of the fabric of the building. As a company, our goal is to continually make our operations more efficient and our products more sustainable, all while reducing our own carbon footprint,” says Ken Finegan, Managing Director – Ireland, Specialty Chemicals and Ingredients at Greenfield.

In 2020, construction of the new 3,800 square metre manufacturing facility was interrupted by Covid. “Over just one weekend, we had to incorporate new safety protocols to make the site safe for all workers. In that initial lockdown, we were only one of five construction projects that were allowed continue due to the essential products we produce for hand sanitisers and more importantly, the buffer solutions

Ken Finegan

“As a company, our goal is to continually make our operations more efficient and our products more sustainable, all while reducing our own carbon footprint.”

Ken Finegan, Managing Director – Ireland, Specialty Chemicals and Ingredients at Greenfield

Greenfield, Portlaoise

EJ , Birr, Co. Offaly

we produce which are used in the Covid vaccines.” DPS Engineering, the main contractor on the project, got on board to ensure safety was paramount on the site. Such was the success of the project that it was used as a template by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) in rolling out its Covid safety protocols.

Before Portlaoise was selected as a prime location for the company to establish its European HQ, the team at Greenfield looked at 32 sites around the country. “Portlaoise came out on top due to its proximity to ports and to the airport. Options around scalability were also important; we have ambitions to develop and grow within our current site and have already drawn up plans for a 20,000 square foot expansion to our warehouse. We have also registered interest in an adjoining site to increase our production capacity in the medium - to long-term.” As customer engagement grows, Greenfield expects to see substantial growth over the next few years. “We need to be able to meet that global demand and our Portlaoise site will allow us to meet that growth.”

A high calibre of people in the area was another major draw for the company. “Employment at a local level is important to us. We have 13,000 people leaving Portlaoise every morning and going to the surrounding counties for work and that’s something we can have an impact on.” Since moving into the facility in August 2020, supporting local industry suppliers has also been important for the team at Greenfield. “As much as possible, we’ve tried to use the abundant service levels that are available in the community. That’s helping us to build relationships with our neighbours which we see as a key element of our ‘settling in’ process.”

In 2019, EJ, a family-owned company headquartered in Michigan, announced the official opening of its new production facility in Birr, Co. Offaly. EJ provides a full line of access solutions for water, sewer, drainage, telecommunications and utility networks worldwide. Alongside traditional materials of grey or ductile cast iron, the facility also produces a highly innovative, Irish developed range of access covers using the very latest composite materials. According to Europe. At the moment, we’re exporting most of our products but we’re noticing a lot of growth in the Irish market which we’re poised to take advantage of,” says Vincent Cooper. Birr has grown to become an important international manufacturing base for EJ, capable of producing enough composite covers that meet the latest European specifications for its local and neighbouring markets.

EJ already has a strong presence in the Irish market with its traditional products but sees a substantial potential for growth on the composite material side. “What’s driving this growth is health and safety ergonomics; people are looking for lightweight solutions that give the same performance. A lot of

“At the momen, we’re exporting most of our products but we’re noticing a lot of growth in the Irish market which we’re poised to take advantage of.”

Dr Vincent Cooper, Composite Product Manager at EJ

Dr Vincent Cooper, Composite Product Manager at EJ, composite materials offer numerous advantages over their metal counterparts. They’re much lighter, which makes transport and handling easier and cheaper and they also boast health and safety benefits for the people who have to work with the products. As they’re a fibre reinforced plastic, they are also nonconductive which offers many benefits in power and data transmission applications. Another plus is their weather-resistance performance and durability in extreme conditions which is at least equal to that of traditional products. Finally, with no metal content, the products have no resale value and therefore are of little attraction to thieves. It took two years to take the research from the lab, commercialise it and put it into production in Birr. “Now, we’re going from strength to strength and we’re supplying to all our subsidiaries across companies are now focusing on the health and safety of employees. The other big drive is of course the environmental aspects of the products and that’s a big draw for companies eager to reduce their carbon footprint.” County councils and local authorities are showing an interest in EJ’s innovative composite materials while the Birr team is also at an advanced stage of talks with major European telecom and electrical utility companies. “For those large firms, moving away from traditional metal or concrete products to solutions like ours is a big move.”

The current drive to identify and work with businesses that produce in Ireland is pushing companies like EJ, says Vincent. “Since Covid hit, the emphasis has very much been on ‘local’. Companies are increasingly looking to local producers and that push is putting us in a very strong position.”