State-owned Irish forestry company Coillte has entered a joint venture with an Austrian company to build timber-framed homes in a move that will bring 250 new jobs to Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
Coillte will team up with Austrian manufacturer GriffnerHaus in the design, construction and marketing of timber-framed houses for the domestic market.
The manufacturing base will be at a 60,000-square-foot factory in Mullingar that will be officially opened this afternoon.
Thirty people are already are working at the plant and manufacturing is under way. Most of the new staff will be hired within 12 months with the rest in place in two years.
In the joint venture, agreed last autumn, Coillte brings access to more than 440,000 hectares of forest within the State, while GriffnerHaus brings its experience of selling to the European market with a successful track record in Italy and Germany.
The new group will compete with Century Homes, the market leaders in this sector.