A FAMILY-RUN egg firm in Northern Ireland has announced a nearly £3m investment plan to grow the business.
Ready Egg has confirmed it will plough £2.9m into the business to drive productivity and growth.
The Fermanagh-based firm, processes more than one billion eggs each year at its plants in Lisnaskea and Chesterfield, with products including liquid and powered egg, hard-boiled and scrambled egg and egg mayonnaise.
This week it confirmed it will be investing in new machinery, such as an egg breaking plant, a reverse osmosis plant and packaging robots, to automate manual tasks and increase operational efficiencies.
Charles Crawford, founder of Ready Egg with Gráinne Moody of Invest NI, Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald and Ready Egg’s Jenna Crawford“We began egg production in Lisnaskea in 1975 and have grown Ready Egg into the largest egg processor in the UK and Ireland,” the firm’s founder Charles Crawford said.
“This exciting investment in robotics and automation will transform our business and improve productivity across a number of key operational areas,” he added.
“This investment also underlines our commitment to sustainability by increasing energy efficiency and reducing waste.”
This week Northern Ireland’s Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald visited the Ready Egg site and toured the facilities.
She also confirmed Invest NI funding of more than £500k under the Agri-Food Investment Initiative (AFII) to support Ready Egg’s capital investment plans.
“This investment marks a significant boost for rural Fermanagh and aligns with my economic vision to create greater regional balance and drive productivity,” she said.
“It will fast-track Ready Egg’s operational efficiency, improve energy usage, and support our Green Skills Delivery goals.”
The Minister added that the investment would also create opportunities for upskilling and workforce development, while delivering “positive ripple effects throughout Ready Egg’s supply chain”.
“The impact of this investment will be felt by many small, family-owned farms across the North, reinforcing the importance of collaboration between government and industry to support sustainable growth.”
Gráinne Moody, Director of Food and Drink at Invest NI said such grants aim to “close Northern Ireland’s productivity gap and help local agri-food and drink processors become more competitive”.
“So far, the AFII scheme has supported several regional businesses to deliver major productivity projects to improve outputs and introduce cutting-edge robotics and automation,” she explained.
“We’re delighted to be supporting Ready Egg’s investment, which has the potential to boost the company’s productivity by up to 50 per cent, transform its capacity and modernise its processes through digitalisation.”