A combined investment of €10 million by global healthcare company Abbott and IDA Ireland will help create new jobs in Sligo, it has been claimed.
Local Fine Gael TD Tony McLoughlin was welcoming the announcement on Tuesday that Abbott will relocate its Irish Nutritional Devices business from its existing base at Ballytivnan to a new, purpose-built IDA Ireland Advance Technology building located in the Finisklin industrial estate.
The Finisklin building is being extended and Abbott’s move should be completed in the first half of next year.
“I am delighted that Abbott is relocating its 100 staff members to Finisklin and investing €10 million in the move. Relocating to IDA Ireland’s purpose built Advance Technology building in Finisklin gives Abbott the potential to expand and create new jobs in Sligo in the future”, Deputy McLoughlin said.
“In addition, Abbott’s decision to locate to the new facility sends out a really positive message to potential international investors that Sligo is open for business and has world class facilities to help ensure their success.
“Abbott, and its sister company Abbvie, are major employers in Sligo and the wider region, with four other factories located in the town”, he said.
Abbott has been in Sligo since 1974 and Nutritional Devices business has been located at the company’s original site at Ballytivnan.
It now shares the campus there with one of biopharmaceutical company Abbvie’s two plants in Sligo.
The Abbott plant in Ballytivnan manufactures nutrition feeding devices for people with special dietary needs due to injury or illnesses.
Abbott say they have “transitioned the site from a manual to fully automated operation, which now houses state-of-the-art automated manufacturing lines”.
The IDA say that the Abbott move to Finislkin will “enable the consolidation of manufacturing and business support within one building, enabling the creation of a medical nutrition device centre of excellence”.
The move also “provides space for any additional manufacturing and support positions should they be created by the company in the future”, they say.
CEO of IDA Ireland Martin Shanahan said: “Abbott is of key importance to Ireland’s life sciences sector and contributes substantially to Ireland’s export economy.”
