Coffey attends official sod turning of new €59 million facility at Smartply

Fine Gael Waterford Minister Paudie Coffey has today (Friday) attended the official sod-turning of the new the new plant at Smartply with Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and The Marine Tom Hayes TD. €59 million will be invested in Smartply in Belview Port that will create 300 construction jobs.

Minister Coffey said; “The money for this development was approved by the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney TD last year and I worked closely with him at that time to secure this funding.

“SmartPly is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coillte and it currently employs just fewer than 200 people between its bases at Belview, Waterford; Kent, England and Hoest, Holland. There are currently 160 employees at its plant in Belview Port in County Waterford. This business is extremely important for the South East Region from an employment and export point of view.

“300 construction jobs will be created as a result of this investment that will help in continuing with the government’s commitment of getting people back to work. In the longer term when this construction project is complete it will have a positive impact on Waterford Port as it has direct links to Rotterdam Port in Holland; that will allow for the export of these highly demanded products.

“Smartply creates innovative products that have demand both domestically and internationally and this investment will lead to infrastructural improvements at the site, such as plant extension, the replacing of older equipment and the purchase of state of the art machinery. This is positive news for Waterford and the South East Region and will allow for increased capacity at the plant in the medium to long term.”

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