Irish Flexible Packaging in €1m upgrade at Wicklow

Irish Flexible Packaging (IFP), a supplier of butter foil to the dairy sector, is investing close to €1 million in its Wicklow factory ahead of next year’s planned abolition of milk quotas. The move will create 12 jobs over two years at the IFP plant in Carnew, where the company expects production to ramp up in response to the abolition and the Irish Dairy Board’s recent announcement to build a butter packing plant for Kerrygold.

“A 50% increase in Irish milk production is forecast by 2020, which is estimated to be worth €1.3 billion per year to the Irish economy, and we are approved by the Irish Dairy Board as a supplier to the Kerrygold brand,” IFP managing director Eamon Farrell says.

Due for completion in mid-2015, the €1 million investment project will include the installation of a specially designed laminator to bond greaseproof paper to aluminum foil, as well as an embosser to imprint pattern on the butter foil. Downstream equipment to improve the output of the embosser will also be installed, along with eight colour flexographic printers.

“We are one of the largest suppliers of wax-coated paper in Europe,” Farrell says. “We began manufacturing foil for butter packaging in 2011, and have secured 80% of the Irish butter wrap market, also exporting to Britain, Europe, the Middle East and South America.”