Jobs boost across Cork

More than 100 jobs were announced this week by two businesses expanding in Cork.

On Tuesday, Hovione announced that it is expanding its Loughbeg site and will create up to 100 jobs over a three-year period. The expansion in Ireland is part of a global expansion strategy representing an investment of €148 million in increasing its capacity at its sites in Ireland, the USA and Portugal.

Dr Paul Downing, General Manager at Hovione in Cork said: “Hovione in Cork is one of the strategic growth engines of the company. With its unique location in a pharmaceutical hub, our Loughbeg site plays a significant and strategic role within the global network. Hovione in Cork has expanded rapidly over the past number of years.

“Since it was established in 2009, it has more than quadrupled in terms of team members. We currently employ over 200 team members and this latest expansion and growth announcement will lead to a further 100 jobs.”

Hovione is an international company which helps pharmaceutical customers bring new and off-patent drugs to market. The Cork site facilitates the production of highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPI) and supports the onboarding of drug substance manufacturing projects of all sizes. The expansion will fuel plans to create an ecosystem, where large customer projects can connect to the existing infrastructure and equipment. The Cork site will also receive a new commercial size spray dryer, in line with demand for particle engineering services.

Meanwhile on Monday, green energy company ActionZero was joined by Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath as it launched its new office at Penrose Dock. ActionZero said it has grown significantly in the past two months and has doubled its workforce in that time. The company now expect to grow to a workforce of 100 in three years from 10 at the start of the year.

ActionZero said it is strongly positioned to play a leading role in Ireland's transition to a decarbonised economy over the forthcoming decade. It focuses on technologies and services dedicated to decarbonising heat.

The company has developed a patented turnkey technology called the EscoPod which generates heat in a process that eliminates fossil fuel.

In particular, it offers a solution for difficult and costly to decarbonise high temperature heat across a range of market sectors.

The technology is integrated with an analytics platform which uses data to optimise efficiency and report on the transition to green, renewable energy. The CEO of ActionZero is Denis Collins, a former global executive with IBM and previous chairman of IDA Ireland Regional Development.

ActionZero presently has staff based in Cork and Kerry, with sales staff deployed throughout the island of Ireland. It’s expected to add a further 80 jobs over the next three years as demand increases for its services.

Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath said: “ActionZero is growing at a significant pace and this is testament to the dedication and skills of their CEO and team. It is fantastic to see them create such significant employment in Ireland and I wish them the very best with their future plans.

“Reducing our emissions is a key commitment of this Government as set out in the Climate Action Plan. Innovators like ActionZero will help provide solutions for industry and ensure that we are moving in the right direction to meet our emission reduction targets.”

CEO of ActionZero, Denis Collins said: “We are delighted to be growing the company at such a quick pace. ActionZero solutions are enabling organisations to decarbonise heat, reduce carbon emissions drastically, and quite often pay for themselves.

“We have doubled the size of the organisation in the past 60 days, and plan to scale to 100 employees within three years. We have already closed a number of deals with multiple organisations across various sectors and are also in advanced negotiations with others.”