Kestrel Foods announces ?750,000 investment and new jobs
Kestrel Foods, the successful UK dried fruit and nut business, has announced it will invest over £750,000 into new processing and packaging technology in 2015 to drive export sales.
The Portadown based company, which owns the Forest Feast and Acti-Snack brands, is introducing innovative production and packaging machinery and will create 11 new jobs.
Outlining the investment strategy, Michael Hall, managing director, Kestrel Foods, says:
"Our objective in making this investment is to strengthen our presence in new and existing international markets.
"By enhancing our production facilities, we will be able to increase production capacity, introduce new packaging formats and develop bespoke products to meet the needs of our target customers at retail, wholesale and foodservice level. We will be creating 11 new positions including a new Foodservice Manager to help deliver this strategy with maximum impact.
"2014 has been a significant year for our business. We have experienced both domestic and international sales growth for our Forest Feast brand and an excellent response to our new sports nutrition range Acti-Snack across the UK, Ireland and international markets. In fact, our brands are now available in over 36 countries.
"This investment represents our ongoing commitment to innovation - ensuring we stay ahead of the curve - and the competition - in an increasingly fast paced industry," Mr Hall adds.
The new technology and staff will enable the company to achieve a significant uplift in sales outside Northern Ireland, particularly in emerging markets it has pinpointed such as Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, Italy and Asia Pacific.
The business now has very solid platforms in Europe and Hong Kong on which to build further international sales. The new machinery and resulting additional products will enable Kestrel to go further, faster, in global markets.