CLOSE to 60 jobs are being created in Lurgan in separate investments straddling old and new industries.
The long-established Classic Mineral Water, which makes soft drinks, is investing £3.7 million to put extra fizz into its manufacturing side, adding 39 posts and effectively tripling its workforce.
And Cubis Systems, which manufactures underground access systems used in the construction of infrastructure networks, will create around 20 new posts in its Lurgan site after scooping a major contract to supply UK telecoms operator CityFibre.
Classic, established in 1948 and the oldest water-bottling company in Ireland, says its tax-payer-funded investment (Invest NI is pumping in £550,000) will increase capacity and efficiency and help quadruple sales from current levels of £2.5 million to £10m over the next four years.
It also has plans to create an international company presence and significantly grow sales of its flavoured water, tonics, plain water, lemonades and water coolers in Ireland and Britain (where its high-end retail customers include Tesco, Dunnes Stores, SuperValu, Mace, Centra, Spar and Eurospar).
Owner and chief executive Liam Duffy said: “We've over 70 years of expertise in the market and plan to expand through innovation and development, delivering growth in export markets by increasing capacity and efficiency, alongside reducing production costs.
“Invest NI’s support means we can make the investment quicker and respond to market demand for new products. We are also able to expand our team in Lurgan, developing a strong skill set to help our company succeed as a major competitor in export markets.”
John Hood, director of food & drink at Invest NI, said: “Along with creating 39 jobs, leading to additional salaries of £785,000 a year into the local economy, Classic Mineral Water is introducing new innovative technology to reduce costs and streamline production processes.”
Meanwhile Cubis has been engaged to supply a range of lightweight, composite access chambers and covers to CityFibre as part of its a £2.5 billion fibre communications network to 26 ‘gigabit cities’ across the UK.
It will be hiring 20 staff across management, engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing and human resources, adding to the currently payroll of 170 at its Lurgan headquarters.
The firm's managing director Michael Wightman said: “We have invested significantly over the past number of years in developing new products, expanding capabilities and building our markets in the UK and further afield.
“Demand for our products continues to grow as asset owners seek more innovative ways of designing and deploying networks, and the new staff will support our long-term growth plan.”
Cubis currently export to more than 25 countries via a blue chip customer base including Openreach, Virgin Media, SNCF and many of the world's largest infastructure owners across telecom, rail, water and energy sectors.
