The men at the top of the Aventas Group, from left are, Paddy McGinley, Senior Management, Paul O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer, Barry King, General manager Quinn’s Cement, Kieran Leonard Chief Operating Officer and Bernard Farrell, Managing Director of Construction
A €16m investment into Quinn Cement is a clear statement of intent that the business is ‘here to say’ in Fermanagh.
The announcement, as revealed in last week’s Fermanagh Herald, came on Wednesday past – at a media briefing held by the Aventas Group, the renamed former Quinn group.
The investment is being made in what is described as Solid Recovered Fuel, and will create 100 construction jobs, allowing the business to reduce its carbon emissions by 20%. The contractor has been named as Scottish construction company PJ Carey.
Solid Recovered Fuel is described as ‘a sustainable source of renewable energy produced by extracting the energy rich components of waste material that would otherwise be discarded’.
The group also noted that the investment is the beginning of further investment, in the region of €30m to €50m, on the plant in the next five years.
The upgrading of the plant for this purpose is expected to be completed by summer.
Asked what sort of message this investment sends out, Aventas Group CEO Paul O’Brien said:
“I think it’s a strong message that this business is here to stay. It’s here for the future.
“We expect a little bit of growth in line with GDP on the island of Ireland this year, so I think it’s the right time to make the investment. I think we have to be competitive – if you look at the two or three other major players on the island, they’ve made this investment some time ago. The business intended to make this investment in the mid-noughties but for well-documented reasons wasn’t in a position to do so.”
And, with reference to the 100 jobs to be created for the construction period, Mr O’Brien noted that while he wouldn’t describe the creation as ‘jobs that will be here beyond the project’, he did say that they are part of the generation of additional work.
“At the end of the day there’ll be 100 additional people on site – and in a lot of ways they’ll be coming in through Carey’s, who are the contractors.”
He added: “What does that mean for the community? It means there’ll be more people going to lunch, there’ll be more people buying sandwiches, there’ll be more people down in the pub having their few pints after work – it just means there’ll be more activity around the area. The other thing is, there’s a fair bit of activity around the place, it gives the area a general buzz.”
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