Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed opened One51’s Protech Plastics facility on Thursday at Little Island, Cork. The new plant will service the Irish food industry with a range of food-grade packaging.

One51 has invested €8m in the site, which will see numbers employed grow from 100 to 125.

The company acquired Protech in 2006. It manufactures a range of specialist plastic containers for nutrition companies such as Wyeth-Nestle, pharmaceutical multinationals and paint companies such as Dulux.

Some 22m infant formula tins are sold worldwide every year have a special anti-contamination lid developed and manufactured by Protech.

Chinese market

Last year Ireland passed out New Zealand to become the second biggest importer of baby formula into the Chinese market. A key area of focus for Chinese authorities has been to cut out the risk of contamination in infant formula.

Alan Walsh, One51 chief executive, said this will be the first factory of its kind in the country to manufacture rigid plastic containers for the food industry. He said that last year's acquisition of the Canadian plastics firm IPL was transformative for One51, not only because it moved the group into the fast-growing North American market, but also because it gave the group access to food-packaging technologies that could be transferred to its European businesses.

One51’s Protech facility also manufactures packaging for 54,000t of animal feed and nutritional supplements annually.

Irish co-ops including Dairygold, Kerry, Glanbia, Lakelands, Boherbue and Tipperary hold a collective 30% stake valued at around €75m in the environmental and plastics company.