World’s largest meat packer JBS buys Moy Park for US$1.5bn

Business and Leadership Ltd.

The world’s largest meat packer, Brazilian company JBS, has bought Moy Park in Northern Ireland from its owner Marfrig Global Foods for around US$1.5bn. Marfrig said the sale would enable it to significantly reduce its debt (currently at about US$5bn) and focus more intensely on pursuing growth opportunities – in particular expanding the food service business of Keystone in both Asia and the US. The transaction is subject to approval from authorities, including antitrust bodies in the EU, and is expected to be signed by the end of 2015. Headquartered in Craigavon, Moy Park is Northern Ireland’s largest private sector employer, with a total workforce of 12,000 people in Ireland,…

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Evros Technology Group to hire 100 people in 2015

Bob Murray, managing director Evros Technology Group and Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs Enterprise

Evros Technology Group, previously known as HiberniaEvros, is to hire 100 people this year across its offices in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Kildare. In operation 25 years, the IT infrastructure and support company currently employs 250 people in Ireland. The new jobs will be spread across a number of technology and administrative positions – half in its new 60,000 sq ft Cherrywood in Dublin HQ and the other half in the regional offices. Evros Technology group managing director Bob Murray said: “This is a major step forward for the company towards our goal of being the largest provider of IT managed services and systems integration in Ireland.” According to Murray,…

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Value of construction projects started down 20pc in Q1 but applications on the rise – index

Business and Leadership Ltd.

The value of construction projects started in the first three months of this year has fallen by 20pc to €1.69bn compared with the first quarter of 2014, according to the Building Information Index, which is produced by a team of researchers at Building Information Ireland (BII). Danny O’Shea , managing director of BII, said five of the seven sectors measured by the index recorded a fall. “The residential sector saw the most significant drop, falling from €874m in the first quarter of 2014 to €600m in the first quarter of 2015. “Education also suffered a major decrease, falling by 68pc. By comparison, there was a significant increase of 54pc in the value…

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High growth foreign companies to create 185 new jobs in Dublin and Wexford

Business and Leadership Ltd.

Five North American companies and one European-based high growth company are creating 185 new jobs in Dublin and Wexford in sectors including medical devices and business analytics. A database technology company founded in Massachusetts in US in 2010, NuoDB, is to open its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) development centre in Dublin and a new office in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It intends to hire 50 developers, engineers and tech support professionals in Dublin over the next three years. Cloud management software company Artisan Infrastructure, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, is establishing its EMEA headquarters in Dublin, creating 30 new information technology jobs. With offices all over Europe and…

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Brazilian e-learning company to create 40 jobs at new European operations centre in Dublin

Business and Leadership Ltd.

Rio de Janeiro-headquartered e-learning company Affero Lab is to locate its European operations centre in Dublin. The company, which plans to locate 40 “highly skilled” jobs at the centre, becomes IDA Ireland’s first investment win from Brazil. The centre’s main focus will be research and development. It will develop the company’s technologies in the adaptive learning, gamification, mobile learning and data analytics areas. The centre will also employ sales and support staff to support the company’s clients in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. “Affero Lab has identified Ireland as a leading innovation hub for e-learning companies and a source of first rate software and engineering skills,” said…

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Start-up numbers rise 24pc, insolvencies down by 38pc in May

Business and Leadership Ltd.

Some 3,653 new businesses were set up in May, 24pc more than the same month last year, according to figures released today by Vision-net.ie. The number of insolvencies during the month was down by 38pc to 79 during the month. The company said 59pc of all new registered business names in May were sole traderships. Professional services accounted for almost 30pc of all company start-ups (up 35pc on May 2014), while the wholesale and retail sector made up 10pc of start-ups and social and personal services accounted for 9pc. Construction and hospitality start-ups rose by 15pc and 27pc year-on-year, respectively. In Dublin, 699 new companies were set up in May.…

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Arch, Ireland’s market-focused €5m connected health technology centre launched in UCD

Business and Leadership Ltd.

Ireland’s €5m Applied Research for Connected Health (Arch) technology centre has been officially launched in UCD today. Connected health involves using connecting technologies and medical devices and treatments for healthcare applications.  Technologies relating to sensors, alarm systems, vital sign monitoring devices, health informatics and data management systems are also key elements in the development of connected health solutions. Headquartered at UCD’s industry partnership centre, NexusUCD, Arch will also have input from University of Limerick (UL) and most of the higher education institutes in the country with connected health research capabilities. Fifteen industry partners are currently steering the Arch research programme, namely ADA Security Systems, Boston Scientific, Hermitage Medical Clinic, Icon, OpenHealth,…

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KWE pre-lets entire Baggot Plaza redevelopment to Bank of Ireland

Business and Leadership Ltd.

Kennedy Wilson Europe has signed an agreement to lease its three-block Baggot Plaza office redevelopment in Dublin 4 to Bank of Ireland. KWE recently received final planning permission for an extra 37,700 sq ft as part of a complete redevelopment of the existing 91,600 sq ft 1970s structure, located from 27 to 33 Baggot St. The redevelopment, which will now comprise 129,300 sq ft of space, is made up of three blocks: Block A (64,900 sq ft), which fronts on to Fleming Place; Block B (42,800 sq ft), which interconnects Block A and B and facilitates access to both Baggot St and Fleming Place; and Block C (21,600 sq ft),…

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Quantcast co-founder officially opens Dublin EMEA office now employing 75

Quantcast co-founder Konrad Feldman

Co-founder of US tech company Quantcast Konrad Feldman has officially opened the company’s Dublin office where staff levels have grown to 75 since 2012 when it was established. Headquartered in San Francisco, Quantcast is specialised in real-time advertising and audience measurement and is one of the leading companies in the world applying the power of big data and analytics to digital and mobile advertising. Quantcast employs a total of 650 people worldwide and has received US$65m in investment funding since its foundation in 2006. The Dublin office, which acts as the firm’s European operations centre, has teams looking after finance, marketing, recruitment, sales and customer services across the EMEA region.…

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