Three companies announce creation of almost 200 jobs

There was rare good news on the jobs front yesterday as three companies confirmed they were creating almost 200 positions.

In Cork City, customer contact management provider Voxpro is seeking to fill 100 multilingual and technical positions at its three purpose-built facilities.

Voxpro describes itself as “Ireland’s leading provider of 24/7 technical customer management in business process outsourcing”.

It operates in 12 languages for more than 300 indigenous and global organisations. The new positions will bring to 330 the number of people employed by Voxpro in Cork.

Also in Cork, Kepak announced it was creating 40 jobs at its consumer foods facility in Watergrasshill.

The Kepak Cork facility, which employs 600 people, comprises two main businesses. The core business portions and packs retail-ready chilled meat packs for the Musgrave Group’s SuperValu and Centra stores in Ireland.

The facility also processes a range of ‘slow- cooked’ own label and branded meats and the Big Al’s burger range. In all, 100 new positions have been created there this year.

Meanwhile, Europcar has announced the creation of 50 jobs and the opening of two new branches in Ireland.

The 50 jobs in customer service, reservations, finance, fleet services and vehicle maintenance will be located in Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Knock, and Navan.

The car rental company is opening new branches in Navan and Galway, bringing its number of branches around the country to nine.

On a negative note, Curragh Carpets in Newbridge, Co Kildare, is to close with the loss of 60 jobs. Siptu, which represents 35 of the staff, said workers were called to a meeting where they were briefed by a liquidator appointed to the company.

“At the meeting, they were informed the plant was closing with immediate effect and they were to directly leave the premises,” Siptu said.