Moy Park, whose brand is currently enjoying exposure by up to 700 million people around the world as main sponsors of the FIFA World Cup, is to create 528 new jobs and invest £170m (€213m) across three sites in Northern Ireland.

A further 100 positions have already been filled as part of the expansion programme.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Tony O’Neill, Moy Park director, said that this expansion will enable the business to achieve substantial growth in export sales and add processing lines and an innovation centre to drive new product development.

The Co Armagh-based poultry processor currently employs almost 5,500 people in Northern Ireland and supports over 800 growers, with 600 of them in Northern Ireland. The company processes over 2.2m chickens per week and had profits of £33.8m (€42.5m) on sales of £1.2bn (€1.5bn) last year.

Grower expansion

Last October, Moy Park launched a grower expansion programme to increase breeder and broiler growing capacity by up to 400 poultry houses. O’Neill said: “This investment announcement will support the grower expansion programme, which will see growing capacity increase to 3m birds per week.”

He confirmed that 250 applications from farmers are currently being processed and 70 houses are under construction, with a number now fully operational. To ensure that Moy Park has the supply, expansion will be necessary at farm level.

Moy Park CEO Janet McCollum recently said that the group continues to have big ambitions and that there is growing demand for locally sourced poultry from the major supermarkets in the UK and Ireland.

Moy Park’s parent group, Marfrig, the Brazilian meat giant, last year made Moy Park the headquarters for its £1.5bn (€1.9m) European operations, responsible for more than 11,500 employees across 16 production sites.

This week’s announcement that the European financial services centre would be located on the Craigavon site further reflects Moy Park’s increased role and position within the group.

Earlier this year, Marfrig chief executive Sergio Rial hinted that Moy Park could be set for a partial flotation as the group looks to reduce its high debt levels.