Published: 15/06/2016

While food and drink produce and exports come mainly from the indigenous sector, there are a number of key foreign-owned enterprises operating in Ireland’s Food & Beverage Industry.

A vital part of the Irish economy, the sector has seen a return to substantive growth since 2014 and prospects remain bright for the sector with exports expected to grow by 40 percent over the next decade.

The food and drink industry is deeply embedded in all regions of the Irish economy, more so than any other manufacturing sector with 76% of its materials and 55% of its services purchased in Ireland and it has the largest payroll of any manufacturing sector employing 50,000 directly and 180,000 indirectly.

Exports of food and drink have comfortably surpassed the €10.5bn milestone. Of the €26bn annually generated by the sector, 40% (€10.5bn) is exported to over 120 countries worldwide. The rest meets the majority of Ireland’s grocery and food service requirements.

Multi-nationals that make a strong contribution to this sector and feature strongly on the Irish Exporters Association Top 20 include Diageo, a global leader in beverage alcohol; it is one of Ireland's leading companies. It has a long and proud tradition of commercial success but also community involvement. In Ireland it is associated with iconic brands such as Guinness, Bushmills and Smithwicks.

With annual exports of more than €800 million, it employs approximately 1,100 people and in addition up to 18,900 jobs are supported indirectly by Diageo Ireland through the purchase of inputs, goods and services. Diageo Ireland is a significant contributor to the country's rural economy. It is estimated that the organisation's contribution to the agricultural sector is €274m per year.

Amongst the global food and beverage brands with a presence in Ireland is breakfast cereal manufacturer Kellogg, whose European HQ based in Dublin undertakes finance, supply chain, nutrition, sales, marketing and business development for Kellogg's European business.

Atlantic Industries, a subsidiary of Coca Cola, has had a base in Ireland for half a century. Its Global Business Shared Services operation is located in Drogheda, a manufacturing and innovation facility in Wexford, and it owns Ballina Beverages where it manufactures the concentrates used to make fizzy drinks including Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite.

Coca Cola’s arch rival Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing established its presence in Cork in 1974 at Little Island, producing concentrate base for its well established portfolio of brands. Organic growth has seen the business branch into financial shared services in 1996, PepsiCo invested over $100M in a state-of-the-art second manufacturing facility at a Greenfield site in Carrigaline, and in 2006 a satellite R&D centre was established at Little Island. In 2007, the Irish operation became the flagship location within the PepsiCo Worldwide Concentrate environment with the transfer of the Worldwide Concentrate headquarters from New York to Cork.

A third location was established at Eastgate and this support centre oversees PepsiCo’s entire global concentrate operations while in 2008 a new high value R&D plant was established in Cork.

Also located in Cork is the Dutch-owned drinks giant Heineken, responsible for the sale of Heineken, Coors Light, Murphys and Beamish brands in Ireland. 100% of its malted barley comes from local suppliers and all of its barley is malted locally in Irish malteries, supporting in excess of 750 farm households and injecting over €4m into the local agricultural economy.

Irish Distillers, part of Groupe Pernod Ricard, the co-leader in global wine and spirits, is Ireland’s largest wine and spirits company, with over 500 employees in four locations. Renowned for its excellent graduate training programmes, it too is committed to sustainable business practices and sources all its barley and malt - in excess of 30,000 tonnes annually - in Ireland.

Retail Multi-Nationals

On the retailer front, international players have all switched on to the importance of promoting and selling Irish produced goods and as competition heats up in the sector, Irish suppliers are benefitting from their support.

UK supermarket giant Tesco is the largest single buyer of Irish food products in the world and Tesco stores outside of Ireland are the second biggest buyers in the world of Irish food and drink. They even eclipse France, which has traditionally been Ireland’s second biggest food and drink export market! In 2012, Indecon Economic Consultants reported that Tesco is worth €2.7 billion a year to the Irish economy. The report also stated that Tesco is the biggest exporter of Irish beef.

German discount store Aldi has a firm commitment to buy locally sourced produce for its Irish stores. Over 50% of its total sales in Ireland are from Irish bought products and Aldi claims to support over 34,000 jobs within Ireland.

Fellow German discounter Lidl was reported to have sourced €539m worth of Irish food and drink in 2015, according to a report prepared by DKM Economic Consultants. DKM estimated that the Irish Exchequer has gained revenues of €413m from Lidl's capital investment programme (147 stores) in the economy since 2000, in addition to revenues derived from its ongoing operations.