Ingredients and foods maker Kerry Group is to take on 900 new staff, following an announcement that it is to establish a global technology & innovation centre in Ireland to serve its EMEA region customers.

The €100m (£81m) development will also create 400 construction jobs working on a 28-acre site in Naas, County Kildare when construction begins early next year.

Around 800 people will be in place by 2015, Kerry says in a statement on its website, and a further 100 jobs will be added when fully commissioned by mid-2016. Additional pre-existing support and management functions will also be housed in the building.

Attending an announcement of the news in Dublin yesterday (9 October), Irish Prime Minister [Taoiseach] Enda Kenny said: “The creation of 800 high-skilled jobs going into this facility in addition to the 400 immediate construction jobs will be a great boost to the economy and for the people working in these industries. 

“As one of Ireland’s finest indigenous companies we look forward to working closely with Kerry during the development of this global technology & innovation centre.”

Frank Ryan, chief executive of investment agency Enterprise Ireland, which part-funded the investment on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, added: “Food is Ireland’s number one export sector and critically important to our economy and to export-led growth."

The Ireland-based Kerry Group employs 24,000 people worldwide.