News

Greiner Packaging has invested £1.6m in water treatment and air compressors at its Northern Ireland facility that it said would help reduce its annual energy bill by 40-60%.

Greiner's Dungannon facility cools its equipment using water and has invested £1.2m in energy exchange technology to collect waste water in reservoirs from where it is used to heat the building through under floor heating or wind cooled for reuse.

The Austrian-owned firm expects the new cooling equipment to reduce annual electricity and oil bills by £400,000 and £60,000 a year respectively. Water usage will drop by five million litres and the firm is expected to hit 2050 energy savings targets within three years.

Chief executive Jarek Zasadzinski said: "Rising energy and fuel costs have placed a firm focus on the need to make significant changes in order to remain competitive."

The water-cooling system is also connected to new high efficiency air compressors that were funded by a £400,000 interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust, and which reuse 80% of the energy they produce.

The water-cooling investment was backed by the Bank of Ireland's European Investment Bank loan fund, Invest Northern Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.

Adam Perkins, relationship manager at Bank of Ireland Business Banking, said: "Businesses in the food industry make an important contribution to the local economy and we recognise the need to help make the sector more competitive."

Greiner's Dungannon plant employs 230 staff in the manufacture of plastic packaging for the food industry.

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