Planned €25m beef slaughter plant set to be operational by 2012
Kilbegggan Abattoir Services (KASL) will be independently managed and will operate the facility for both groups. The initiative is the first of its kind in the Irish meat industry. It is in keeping with both Government and Enterprise Ireland policy, which seeks to modernise the beef industry and render it more competitive internationally by concentrating processing in larger more cost efficient units.
The facility has been selected for financial support under the beef and sheep meat processing fund, an Enterprise Ireland managed scheme, on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. It will be built and operated to world-class standards, with a slaughtering capacity of up to 200,000 head.
groups will continue to independently procure and purchase livestock. The stock slaughtered for each group at the new service facility will be further processed within the respective groups’ existing facilities and independently marketed through their individual sales and marketing networks.
Dawn Meats, established in Waterford in 1980, is one of Europe’s largest food processing companies. It forms part of the Queally Group, Ireland’s largest privately owned agri-business.
The group has seven plants in Ireland and four plants in Britain, processing beef and lamb from which it produces 200,000 tonnes of added value meat products.
It has retail packing plants and sales offices in Ireland, Britain Netherlands and France amongst other countries.
Kepak Group, founded in 1981, is a privately owned meat and food processing and marketing company based in Clonee, Co Meath. Kepak’s principal activities include the processing and marketing of Irish and British beef and lamb in retail, and consumer ready formats.
