CO Antrim mineral processing firm Kilwaughter has expanded its research and development team by 50 per cent as part of a long term £3.4 million strategic investment in innovation.
It includes the recent recruitment of three further PhD scientists.
The Larne business said it followed what it described as unprecedented demand for its products, as the economy rebounds following the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
Head of R&D at Kilwaughter Minerals, Dr Ross Savage, said: “Boosting innovation and increasing investment at our R&D centre is core to meeting the sustained demand we are experiencing as well as futureproofing the business to service the evolving needs of our customers.
“Having established a strong reputation for engineering high performance products, our focus is now on developing new technologies and using these to drive product excellence and deliver new levels of performance and efficiencies to our industries.”
Official data estimates R&D investment in the north hit £881.4m last year, an annual increase of 11 per cent.
Gary Wilmot, chief executive, Kilwaughter Minerals, added: “We have been building our customer insight to allow us to confidently deepen our investment in new technologies and new products.
“We are creating a culture that puts high value on ideas and creativity and I’m confident that we have an exciting future ahead of us.”
