Food and healthcare distributor creates 52 jobs

PRL Group, distributors of a wide range of foods and healthcare products to the retail market nationwide, has added 52 jobs to its expanding business.

Further growth is forecast in 2011 as the group continues to expand its operations.

It recently secured a €125 million five-year deal from Unilever to distribute its range of ice cream products in Ireland.

Recent contracts won means turnover this year will rise from €37m to €52m with those figures set to grow further in the years ahead.

The recent contracts will bring the current workforce to over 300 permanent staff, while the Unilever deal establishes PRL as the largest provider of frozen food supply chain solutions in Ireland.

In November 2010 the PRL Group, headquartered in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, also won a contract with Danone to take over the distribution of the Danone chill product range in the Irish market.

Co-founder and executive chairman, Michael Brannigan said despite the impact of the recession, the group is continuing to do well.

“We are holding our own and building it (the business) in difficult times for the economy,” he said.

Two years ago the group, then consisting of four separate businesses, were merged to form PRL.

Shortly after Eoin Stapleton, former managing director of Breeo Foods, part of the parked Reox Holdings group, took over as managing director of PRL.

Over the period the group has continued to expand and Brannigan says while the trading environment is very difficult “some people are doing reasonably well out there”.

There are businesses “that are surviving and thriving,” he said.

The future continues to look good for PRL which employs 300 people with further job prospects on the cards if its recent expansion profile is maintained, he said.