Environmental-services and plastics company One51 (Dublin / Ireland; www.one51.com) is to invest EUR 8m in its OnePlastics subsidiary, Protech Plastic, in Cork / Ireland and is expanding its OnePlastics manufacturing facility in Shanghai / China.

The investment in Ireland will result in the development of a food grade plastic manufacturing facility located at Protech’s existing site at Little Island / Cork and will allow the company to produce innovative packaging products to support the growing Irish food industry.

This expansion will lift the number of people employed by Protech from 100 to 125 over the next two years. Aside from supplying customers with containers, Protech designs and manufactures specialist plastic components for multinational firms in the nutrition, pharmaceutical and data storage sectors.

The investment in China will see the OnePlastics facility located near Shanghai doubling in size to meet increasing demand and configure the facility for future growth.

Alan Walsh, One51 group chief executive, said: “Our recent acquisition of IPL [see Plasteurope.com of 15.07.2015] has provided us with a considerable product portfolio and competence in the design and manufacture of innovative food grade packaging products. We intend to leverage this knowledge through Protech’s new facility and to develop products to support indigenous Irish food companies as they continue to grow and expand in the global marketplace. The expansion of Protech’s facility is an exciting opportunity for the group and one that we will seek to grow in the future.”