Dawn opens €46m flagship plant in Wales

THE progressive Dawn Group, which was founded in Waterford 25 years ago, opened a €46 million flagship meat processing plant in Wales yesterday.

Regarded as one of Europe's most modern and sophisticated food processing plants, it was hailed as a major confidence boost to plans for the growth of west Wales's first dedicated food park.

It was also seen as an exciting project for the €825 million turnover Dawn Group, which has thirteen processing plants in Ireland, Britain and France.

Dawn chief executive Dan Browne, said the plant is a statement of the group's progress.

"Our role is to efficiently transform livestock to attractive products available on the shelves, quality products at affordable prices that are both nutritious and healthy," he said.

The new Dawn Pac project in Carmarthenshire has created 350 jobs over the past six months, taking its total workforce to 650. It is operating out of a vast 210,000 sq ft processing plant on a thirty acre food park.

Three years ago a damaging fire on the original plant site threatened the company's future in Wales and Dawn was forced to reduce the size of its operation and have a re-think.

Wales's Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies said Dawn's commitment to the region had provided the catalyst for the future success of the food park.

"This is an important development for the future of the agri-food industry in Wales.

"I'm delighted we have been able to provide significant financial support to help secure the future of Dawn Pac in west Wales.

"This investment demonstrates the strength of Wales in attracting quality business investment."

Dawn Pac's customers include Asda, Somerfield, Morrisons, Iceland, Sainsburys, M&S and Makro.

Plant Manager Mark Allan said it was a red letter day which marked a new beginning for Dawn Pac. "This investment puts us at the leading edge of the meat processing industry."

With five acres under cover the new plant is ten times the size of Dawn Pac's original home. It is the group's largest and most sophisticatedly equipped plant, highly computerised and automated with the latest robotic and cutting machines.

It houses facilities for delivering up to 500 tonnes of pork and beef retail packs each week and an additional 500 tonnes per week of premium pre-packaged, cooked, smoked and barbecue meats.