The CJ Sheerin Group, Ireland’s largest pallet manufacturer and recycler, and the leading provider of sustainable pallet solutions across Ireland and the UK — has opened a new €6 million logistics and storage facility at its headquarters in Mountrath, County Laois.
The new 50,000 square foot facility, which forms part of a wider programme of strategic investment across the CJ Sheeran Group is capable of storing 150,000 pallets, and provide dedicated storage for customer products, while also expanding the Group’s third-party logistics services.
Recent investments at the Group’s Mountrath site also include a new automated pallet production line, producing in excess of 10,000 pallets per 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 per week.
As one of the Midlands region’s largest employers, CJ Sheeran Group’s newest project has created 15 additional jobs, growing its total direct workforce to 465. 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.
Speaking at the official opening, Mark Sheeran, Managing Director of CJ Sheeran who is also Chairperson of Forest Industries Ireland, said: “The milestone investment forms the first of six major logistics and storage facilities planned as part of our 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. 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. 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.”
Commending CJ Sheeran Group on its new investment, Mark McAuley, Director of Forest Industries Ireland, said: “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. Our forest sector is a great success story built on sustainable forests and world class timber products.”