Niche investment firm One51 to spend €8m on upgrade of Cork facility

Niche investment firm, One51 is to invest €8 million in majorly upgrading its plastic products manufacturing facility at Little Island and plans to expand its existing manufacturing facility in China.

The Dublin-based plastics and environmental services-focused group is looking to develop a state-of-the-art food grade manufacturing facility at the Cork home of subsidiary firm, Protech Plastics.

The move will enable the company to produce innovative packaging products for Irish food producers.

It will also boost Protech’s workforce from 100 to 125 over the next two years.

Protech currently manufactures containers and specialist components for multinational customers in the nutrition, pharmaceutical and data storage sectors.

Last year, One51 paid over €200m for a controlling stake in Canadian plastics firm, IPL.

Group chief executive, Alan Walsh said that has provided One51 with a considerable product portfolio and competence in the area of food grade packaging which can be leveraged through Protech’s expansion.

“The expansion of Protech’s facility is an exciting opportunity for the group and one that we will seek to grow in the future,” he added.

The group is also planning to expand the Shanghai-based manufacturing plant of its OnePlastics Group subsidiary, which supplies plastic products to multinational clients.

According to management, the expansion is required in order to cater for rising customer demand and to ensure that its facilities are “appropriately configured for future customer growth”.

The move will result in a doubling in size of the Irish group’s Chinese manufacturing capabilities.