One51, the plastics and environmental company spun out from IAWS in 2005, has opened a new €8m facility at Little Island in Cork that will supply plastic packaging to the Irish food sector. The facility, which was officially opened by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, is located at One 51’s Protech Plastics site and will supply rigid plastic packaging to Irish food companies.

Protech Plastics, acquired by One51 in 2006, 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 sold worldwide every year have a special anti-contamination lid developed and manufactured by Protech.

One51 chief executive Alan Walsh, said this will be the first factory of its kind in the country to manufacture rigid plastic containers for the food industry. Protech Plastics facility also manufactures packaging for 54,000t of animal feed and nutritional supplements annually.