£5.8m. investment and 19 new jobs at Diamond Corrugated

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Jonathan Bell announced details of the £5.8million boost today.

Its investment in High Definition (HD) flexo print technology will enable the Pennyburn company to produce high quality seven colour shelf ready packaging and compete for new business in export markets, particularly amongst suppliers to multi-national retailers.

Jonathan Bell said: “This is a major investment by Diamond Corrugated which will provide the company with the means to improve its product offering, expand its customer base and increase its competitive position.

“Diamond Corrugated has created and sustained quality manufacturing employment over its 40 year history. The 19 new jobs being created as a result of this expansion is positive news both for Londonderry and the wider North West region.

“The family business manufactures printed corrugated packaging for a range of sectors including food and drink, pharmaceutical, e commerce and aerospace. This substantial investment is enabling the company to offer cost conscious clients more sophisticated products including higher levels of print quality, as well as offering faster turnaround and delivery times.

“I am pleased Invest Northern Ireland has offered £495,000 to support the new jobs helping Diamond Corrugated improve its offering to customers with shorter lead times which will in turn secure the viability of the plant.”

Paul Diamond, Managing Director of Diamond Corrugated, said the investment was the latest phase in its ongoing plans to become one of Ireland’s largest and most successful corrugated plants supplying bespoke packaging.

“The continued encouragement and assistance from Invest NI has been of vital support in enabling us to implement our growth strategy,” he added.

“Multinational retailers demand that their food and drink suppliers provide a higher resolution print on the outer corrugated packaging of their products. Our new Gopfert seven colour HD Flexo Printer is the most advanced printing press in the global corrugated industry, and has provided us with the capability to produce shelf ready packaging with consistent quality, colour and finish to meet the needs of our growing client base. “This is an exciting time for our company as we are already seeing an encouraging uplift in sales as a result of this investment and we will continue to build on this performance over the coming months.”

Diamond Corrugated employs 70 full time staff at Pennyburn and its other facility at Campsie.

In 2013, it announced a £4.8m investment in leading edge equipment and the on-going development of staff.

Twelve of the new jobs are already in place.