Castlecool’s 2nd phase of Food & Business Park

Dec 31, 2011 Warehousing Ireland News 0

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~ 30 acres developed and a further 32 available ~

International distribution and logistics specialist Castlecool has announced the second phase of its Food and Business Park development at Lough Egish, Co Monaghan. Ideally located to service the needs of Ireland’s resurgent food and beverage industries, the 62 acre Castlecool Food and Business Park is already home to a variety of national and international brands including Rangeland Meats, Swift Fine Foods, Malone Meats, ASM Feeds, Olhausen Meats, Cassidys and Vion McGees Foods.

Operating successfully since 2006, some 30 acres of the Park has been developed to date. This second phase will see the remaining 32 acres being made available to companies interested in serving the island of Ireland and export markets.

The Castlecool Food and Business Park has been designed with the specific needs of the island of Ireland’s food industry in mind. It also boasts a 2 million gallon per day potable water supply, its own on-site electricity supply substation, piped natural gas and an effluent treatment system more than capable of handling all the needs of occupants. The units range in size from 7,000 square foot to 20,000 square foot.

Services and facilities available at the Castlecool Food and Business Park include secure parking facilities for customer vehicles; dock levellers with an indoor tautliner loading facility, making it an ideal location for cross docking; weighing facilities for any vehicle from a small van to a large HGV; and support services such as telesales, administration and other outsourcing functions through Castlecool.

In addition, Castlecool’s own Lough Egish 180,000 square foot (16,800 sq metre) facility offers eight segregated stores which range in temperature from ambient, chilled, and frozen.

Companies located in the Food and Business Park can also avail of the services provided by the Lough Egish facility which include national and international distribution capabilities, and groupage services to the UK and Europe. The facility also offers multi-temperature control logistics services; state-of-the-art chilled, frozen and ambient storage environments; top quality vendor management processes; and administrative and business process outsourcing.

“The food and agricultural sector has been a cornerstone of the island of Ireland’s economy for many years,” said Paul Shortt, founder and managing director of Castlecool. “Its importance will grow still further over the next few years with the ending of the EU milk quota regime and continued growth in world demand for quality food products.”

“In the Republic of Ireland alone the agri-food, fisheries and forestry industry employs more than 150,000 people and has an annual output of over €24 billion, including a multi-billion export industry,” he continued. “It still represents Ireland’s largest indigenous industry and exports from the industry North and South are set to grow massively over the next decade. A study by the National Institute for Transport and Logistics revealed that Monaghan is optimally positioned to service the needs of the island’s food industry; we are within 100 kilometres of both Dublin and Belfast, close to the M1 Dublin-Belfast Motorway and within easy reach of all major ports and airports.”

Companies choosing to locate in the Castlecool Food and Business Park have access to a variety of high quality resources and services. “We offer a full end to end solution for food and beverage companies and they can avail of any or all of the services offered”, said Paul Shortt. “We have already had a number of expressions of interest recently from companies wishing to avail of the services available here. The concept of sharing resources and services is a proven and successful formula for significant and sustainable cost reduction, which is underpinned by effective reductions in the carbon footprint of the participating companies. Indeed, we are currently examining the feasibility of generating some of our own powerfrom a wind turbine on site.”

“We are proud to be leading the way in providing this facility for the food industry in Ireland,” Shortt added. “There are currently plans for a similar facility in County Dublin but our customers can avail of lower property costs, excellent facilities and an ideal location to service the entire island. We are currently improving our facilities to cater to a wider range of companies in different industries such as the pharma and IT sectors. We already have companies such as ES Forklifts, Kozy Shack, and SFS Fixing Solutions on site and we look forward to welcoming many more firms from a variety of different sectors to the Business Park in the coming years.”

For companies focused on the all-island and international markets right now and in the medium to longterm, the Castlecool Food and Business Park is ideally located as a processing, manufacturing and distribution hub providing direct and efficient access. Its strategic location facilitates a “one stock solution” for both North and South.

For more information on Castlecool please visit www.castlecool.ie

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