Enfer Scientific to add 120 jobs at new HQ

ENFER Scientific, the BSE test maker, is to double its workforce over the next 18 months.

The company said it plans to add 120 new jobs at its new manufacturing headquarters at the M7 Business Park in Naas, Co Kildare.

The company has created a new diagnostics division which will employ technical graduates and scientists in a new centre developing innovative veterinary diagnostics tests for use in the EU and the US.

Enfer is owned by Louis Ronan and veterinary surgeon Michael O’Connor who set up the company in Cashel, Co Tipperary in 1990. It supplies BSE testing kits to farmers across the world. The company had sales of €16m in 2005 and profits of almost €3.5m.

Mr O’Connor said yesterday: “Our goal is to develop and provide a comprehensive veterinary diagnostic suite of tests that provides the complete solution to the agricultural and food industries both on a national and international level.”

Enfer, through a partnership with AnDiaTec of Germany, have developed diagnostic tests for diseases such as Bovine Viral Diarrhoea virus (BVDv) and ParaTB. Enfer is selling these products in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. It has recently launched the products in the US.

Enfer’s new headquarters were opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday who said Ireland should be proud of Enfer’s achievements. “From its beginnings as a laboratory facility producing testing equipment to detect angel dust, to its ground-breaking work on the world’s first rapid test for BSE, Enfer Scientific created the largest BSE testing facility in the world,” he said.