Posted on about 1 month ago by Laurentina Kennedy
Abbott's €440m investment to create 800 jobs in Kilkenny, 200 in Donegal
Pharmaceutical company Abbott is opening a new manufacturing facility producing diabetes technology in Kilkenny today which is set to employ more than 800 people.
It is part of a €440m investment in Ireland by Abbott.
The new investment also includes a significant expansion of the company's site near Donegal town, where a further 200 jobs are being created.
The new 30,000 metre-square Kilkenny site is set to have the highest production in the world of the company's FreeStyle Libre sensors.
These sensors are among the world’s smallest to monitor glucose for people living with diabetes.
The site is fully electric, powered by six air-to-water heat pumps, and it has 600 solar panels on the roof as well as tanks for collecting rainwater to use onsite.
Today's opening ceremony is being attended by the Taoiseach Simon Harris in his official capacity as Taoiseach.
Afterwards he is set to do some campaigning in the area before returning to Dublin ahead of tonight's leaders debate.
Abbott has been in Ireland since 1946 and Simon Harris said today it was one of the longest established global companies here and one of the State's biggest employers.
"This latest investment is a further vote of confidence in Ireland as a location for world-class advanced manufacturing and healthcare businesses. With the opening of this new site, Ireland is now at the global centre of diabetes care," he said.
As part of today’s announcement Abbott is also giving a $100,000 grant to The Ireland Funds to support the education of young people from three DEIS schools in Kilkenny.
Abbott chairman and chief executive Robert Ford said today there were now a total of ten sites across the island of Ireland working to produce diagnostics, medical devices and nutritional products.
These sites employ 6,000 people at two sites in Dublin and Sligo as well as Sligo and at further sites in Donegal, Clonmel, Cootehill, Galway, Kilkenny and Longford.
Michael Lohan, chief executive of IDA Ireland, said Abbott had a 78-year legacy in Ireland of delivering substantial economic and employment benefits.
Outside of Ireland, a further £85m investment has also been announced at the company's Witney facility in Oxfordshire in the UK.