Keelings opens €20m state-of-the-art flower facility in Dublin

Keelings, the Dublin-based fruit, vegetable and horticulture group, has opened a new flower processing facility in north Dublin which it says will allow it to double the size of its flower business over the next seven years.

Located at the family-owned group’s FoodCentral business campus at St Margaret’s near Dublin Airport, the 8,500sq m (91,000sq ft) facility is expected to add about 50 jobs across a range of roles to the 115 already working in Keelings Flowers.

The group, which produces five million bouquets a year, has invested about €20 million in the project and delivered it in “just shy of 52 weeks”, said Steven Devoy, business unit director at Keelings Flowers.

“It is the only facility of its kind on the island of Ireland that’s been purpose-built to process and handle cut flower bouquets and indoor and outdoor plants. We have a chamber at plus 4 degrees Celsius that manages the intake of cut flowers, both from local production and internationally. We also have a plus 15 degree Celsius chamber that handles indoor plants and products like orchids. We’ve also installed LED grow lights.”

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Keelings said that sustainability is “built in to the design of the building”, with automated systems gathering plant cut-offs for composting as well as heat-capturing and rainwater-collection systems.

Mr Devoy said the project was completed against a backdrop of “significant cost headwinds” throughout the construction phase.

“I’m delighted that we decided to proceed with this project because there was never going to be a good time to do it,” he said. “It was absolutely the right time and from what industry experts are telling me – and I’m not one of them – raw material costs are probably not going back to where they were so it was a case of it being the right time for us.”

Mr Devoy said flowers currently account for about 6 to 7 per cent of overall Keelings Group sales, but the plan is to double the size of the business unit over the next seven years. “But we’ll need the people to help us fulfil that ambition,” he said. “Part of that is we’re going to have a hiring strategy in various roles across the business, some of them immediate.”

Keelings, which owns the FoodCentral campus, has expanded the business park in recent years, renting out space to other food and logistics businesses including its competitor, Donnelly Fruit & Veg, and chilled foods supplier Oakland International. Mr Devoy said the area is “fast becoming a food production and supply chain logistics hub”.

Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney, who attended the opening of the new facility on Tuesday, said in a statement: “We are delighted to see so many jobs being sustained by the business, and Keelings will be looking to increase headcount in line with business growth in the coming years. I wish them well into the future.”