Keelings, the Dublin-based produce and horticulture group, has opened its new flower processing facility in north Dublin that it says it will allow it to double the size of its flower business over the next seven years.
Located at the family-owned group’s FoodCentral business park campus at St Margarets near Dublin Airport, the 8,500 sq m (91,000 sq ft) facility is expected to add around 50 jobs across a range of roles to the 115 already working in Keelings Flowers.
The group, which produces five million bouquets a year, has invested around €20 million in the project, said business unit director at Keelings Flowers Steven Devoy, and delivered it in “just shy of 52 weeks”.
He said: “It is the only facility of its kind on the island of Ireland that’s been purpose built to process and handle cut flower bouquets and indoor and outdoor plants. We have a chamber at plus 4 degrees Celsius that manages the intake of cut flowers, both from local production and internationally. We also have a plus 15 degree Celsius chamber that handles indoor plants and products like orchids. We’ve also installed LED grow lights, which was a look after plants while they’re also maintaining the temperature controls.”
Keelings said that sustainability is “built into the design of the building” with automated systems gathering plant cut-offs for composting as well as heat capturing and rain water collection systems.
Mr Devoy said the project against a backdrop of “significant cost headwinds” throughout the construction phase. “I’m delighted that we decided to proceed with this project because was never going to be a good time to do it,” he said. “It was absolutely the right time and from what industry experts are telling me – and I’m not one of them – raw material costs are probably not going back to where they were so it was a case of the it being the right time for us.”
Mr Devoy said that flowers currently account for about six to seven per cent of overall Keelings Group sales but the plan is the double the size of the business unit over the next seven years. “But we’ll need the people to help us fulfil that ambition,” he said. “Part of that is we’re going to have a hiring strategy in various roles across the business, some of them immediate.”
Keelings, which owns the FoodCentral campus, has expanded the business park in recent years, renting out space to other food and logistics businesses including its competitor, Donnelly Fruit & Veg, and chilled foods supplier Oakland International. Mr Devoy said the area is “fast becoming a food production and supply chain logistics hub”.
Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney, who will attend the opening of the new facility on Tuesday afternoon, said in a statement: “We are delighted to see so many jobs being sustained by the business, and Keelings will be looking to increase headcount in line with business growth in the coming years. I wish them well into the future.”
