FDBusiness.com

A new Irish biscuit company, East Coast Bakehouse, has been launched and will invest €15 million in a new large scale commercial biscuit manufacturing facility located on Ireland’s east coast in Drogheda resulting in the creation of 100 jobs.

The €15 million investment will transform a recently renovated 50,000 sq ft food production facility at Donore Rd business park in Drogheda, County Louth into a state-of-the-art bakehouse, innovation facility, warehouse and offices. The building, which is the size of a football pitch, is ideally suited to its new purpose with ample space to house the long production lines required for efficient biscuit baking complete with suspended product cooling lines.

The Irish biscuit industry is worth €170 million, and the UK market is valued at over €2 billion. The East Coast Bakehouse will produce its own new brand and will also manufacture retail private label, serving both the domestic and export markets.

This project is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland.

Michael Carey (pictured), CEO of East Coast Bakehouse, comments: “Every week over €3 million worth of biscuits is purchased and enjoyed by Irish consumers, almost all are currently imported. We aim to provide a new commercially competitive local Irish source of biscuits. There is also a great opportunity to provide high quality biscuits to UK retailers. We carefully evaluated a number of locations for our facility before selecting Drogheda, and our location on Ireland’s east coast will play a key role in the future of our company. We have worked very closely with Enterprise Ireland on this project and we have been encouraged by local support so far for the development of this facility.”

He continues: “We are very pleased to be launching this new venture. Our management team combined has over 60 years experience in the sector and our drive to bake better biscuits, using select ingredients in a sustainable manner will become key to our business’ success in the coming years.”

In addition to Michael Carey, the founders of the new business are Marketing & Innovation Director, Alison Cowzer; Commercial Director, Daragh Monahan; Operations Director, James Yarr; and Chief Financial Officer, Gerry Murphy. This group was the management team that successfully established the Jacob Fruitfield Group before it was sold in 2011 to Valeo Foods.

Michael Cantwell, Head of Enterprise Ireland’s Food Division, says: “As Ireland’s largest indigenous sector, a thriving food and drink industry is critically important to our economic well being. The establishment of the East Coast Bakehouse, the most significant new consumer foods company in Ireland for a decade and led by such an experienced team will further underpin Ireland’s world-wide reputation in food innovation. We warmly congratulate the founders on this major achievement and Enterprise Ireland looks forward to working closely with the company to scale this ambitious business and create jobs in this region.”