OVER 30 jobs are to be created as a result of a £1.1 million investment at MKL Meats in Downpatrick. MKL is a division of Oakdale Meats, which is in turn owned by the Dungannon and District Co operative Enterprises.
The investment will enable the company to move from secondary processing of meat products for the institutional catering sector to developing sales on overseas markets. It is being supported by a grant of £125,000 from the IDB.
IDB chairman, Mr John McGuckian, said the company would now be able to increase its business in the hospitality contract and in flight catering markets.
The red meat industry was "vitally important" to the Northern Ireland economy, and it was essential that firms like MKL were equipped to maintain consistent quality, he said.
. Fifty new jobs are to be created in a £4.5 million expansion programme by the Portadown company, Seagoe Ceramics.
Seagoe, which is part of the Leeds based group Beauford plc, employs 83 people making advanced ceramics for the aerospace, medical equipment, automotive and electronics industries.
The investment is backed by a grant of £1.25 million from the IDB. The firm will move from its current premises to a new purpose built factory on the Carn Industrial Estate.
. The chairman of the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland has said that high energy prices could discourage investors from setting up in Northern Ireland.
Mr Bill Tosh said the recent rise in the price of electricity meant that all firms would pay up to 2.9 per cent more for their power from the beginning of April. This would add to a price differential which made electricity prices in the Province 20 per cent higher than elsewhere in Britain.
Northern Ireland Electricity chairman, Dr Patrick Haren, said a support package of £60 million from the government should help to keep price rises below the level of inflation over the next three years. He said that as a small isolated system, Northern Ireland was still vulnerable to changes in international fuel prices and exchange rates, but that the outlook was much better than before.
