An international food company is creating over 150 new jobs in its Co Tyrone factory as part of an £11.5m investment.
Vion in Cookstown produces pork, sausages, bacon and cooked meats and is the largest pig processing plant in Ireland.
Now its Netherlands-based parent is investing in new equipment to improve animal welfare and increase capacity, in a move which is set to create 164 new jobs.
It is also upgrading its chilling technology as some of its existing fridges date back to when the plant was built in 1938.
Invest NI has offered Vion £960,000, with £244,500 coming from its Jobs Fund.
Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said: “This investment is a tremendous boost and another example of Invest NI’s Jobs Fund supporting the creation of new employment opportunities.
“The enhancements to the company’s processing facilities will allow it to become more efficient and increase profitability as well as ensuring pigs are handled in the most humane way possible.
“Vion anticipates a significant increase in sales as a result of this investment and will ensure the company continues to play a strategic role in sustaining the important Northern Ireland pork sector.”
The plant currently employs over 700 people and sells products under the Cookstown brand.
It also supplies customers such as Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Henderson Group, Musgrave, Samworth Bros and Dew Valley.
Seamus Carr, managing director of Vion, said: “Our strategy is to build on the success of the Cookstown brand by investing in our people and in our processes.
“We anticipate a substantial increase in productivity and sales as a result of this investment.
“Invest NI’s support has meant we can move forward quickly with the project and ensure the continuing viability of the facility in Cookstown.”
The Cookstown brand of sausages, with its famous ‘a sausage is not a sausage without a sizzle’ slogan was founded in Cookstown in 1937.
In the 1970s it was marketed as “the Best family sausage” in an advertising campaign featuring Belfast-born football legend George Best.
Vion bought Grampian Country Foods, which owned the Cookstown plant, in 2008. Grampian had in turn acquired the Cookstown plant from Malton Foods in 2001.
£11.5m- The amount Vion is investing to upgrade the Cookstown factory