SHERWOOD Davis and Geck is investing £17.6 million sterling to expand production and introduce new products at its plant in Ballymoney, Co Antrim. The project is expected to result in the creation of 73 new jobs.

The IDB backed investment is the 12th made by Sherwood at Ballymoney since the American owned plant was set up there in 1966. According to the plant manager, Mr Albert Sherrard, it has enabled the company to upgrade facilities and increase production capacity as part of a strategy to develop its business in key export markets.

Sherwood Davis and Geck employs 350 people making hypodermic needles and syringes, lancets and blood collection tubes for customers in 45 countries. It exports its products to mainland Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Its major markets are France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The IDB chairman, Mr John McGuckian, said the investment would strengthen the case that more of the products made by Sherwood Davis and Geck in the US should be manufactured at the Northern Ireland plant, closer to group's European customers.

Mr Sherrard said that the strategy for the continued development of the plant was to increase the percentage of higher value added products while cutting down on production costs.

"We see a significant opportunity to assist the groups European marketing and sales operation," he said, "by providing customers with a greater and more flexible access to a wider range of products, particularly those currently being made in the United States."

Mr Sherrard said that in addition to manufacturing 400 different products, the company in Ballymoney operated a distribution centre for a further 450 products made at the group's plants in the US.

Mr Sherrard said the investment was the second major project in Ballymoney since 1994, and was part of a programme designed to ensure that the plant is an efficient low cost manufacturing unit.

Sherwood's Ballymoney plant was set up in 1966 as a production unit by Sherwood Medical Industries (SMI), which was based in St Louis, Missouri, and was one of 11 plants owned by SMI employing more than 6,000 people when the company was acquired by American Home Products of New Jersey in 1982.

Two years ago, American Home Products acquired American Cyanamid, forming a $13 million corporation employing 74,000 people.