CJ Sheeran Group, the country’s largest pallet manufacturer and recycler and a provider of sustainable pallet solutions across Ireland and the UK, has opened its new €6m logistics and storage facility at its headquarters in Mountrath, Co Laois.
The new 50,000 square foot facility forms part of a wider programme of strategic investment across the CJ Sheeran Group. It is capable of storing 150,000 pallets, will provide dedicated storage for customer products, while also expanding the group’s third-party logistics services.
The new project has also created 15 additional jobs, growing its total direct workforce to 465.
The company said the recent investments are also expected to create further opportunities across manufacturing, engineering, logistics, warehousing, maintenance and business support functions as additional phases of development are completed.
Recent investments at the group’s Mountrath site also include a new automated pallet production line, which produces more than 10,000 pallets a week; a new 1.75MW biomass boiler and two new high-capacity kilns with a further two kilns planned. Each kiln is capable of drying more than 10,000 pallets a week.
CJ Sheeran Group is a member of Forest Industries Ireland (FII).
Mark Sheeran, Managing Director of CJ Sheeran, said today’s “milestone” investment forms the first of six major logistics and storage facilities planned as part of the company’s long-term strategic investment plan for the site.
“It provides the capacity required to support automation, increased manufacturing output and the next phase of CJ Sheeran Group’s growth, including third party logistics,” Mr Sheeran said.
“As Ireland’s largest pallet manufacturer, we are proud of timber’s role in a genuine circular economy: sourced from FSC-certified, responsibly managed forests, pallets can be reused, repaired and remanufactured many times, extending their working life before the timber is ultimately recovered and recycled,” he said.
“This zero-waste, circular model keeps a renewable resource in productive use for as long as possible while supporting the essential industries and services that communities rely on every day,” he added.
Mark McAuley, Director of Forest Industries Ireland, said that CJ Sheeran is a great example of how Ireland’s forests deliver large-scale employment in wood product manufacturing.
“The forest sector underpins around 12,000 jobs and is worth €2 billion per year to the Irish economy. We need to keep planting new forests to secure our future timber supply so we can deliver sustainable timber products such as pallets, crates, and fencing, while also building greener timber frame homes,” Mr McAuley said.
“Our forest sector is a great success story built on sustainable forests and world class timber products,” he added.
