Shercock company aims to create 600 jobs over five years

Shercock-based chicken processor Manor Farm is to invest €25m in an expansion plan over the next five years creating 600 new jobs.

Today's Irish Times reports that the investment will boost the Carton Bros firm output from its current 900,000 birds a week to 1.5m.

Manor Farm currently employs 824 staff at its premises in Shercock, a nearby feed mill and its head office in Clonee, Co Meath. The company had turnover last year of €249m, of which 90 per cent was spent in the Republic.

MD and co-owner Vincent Carton said it's hoped to increase sales of Manor-Farm branded products from seven per cent of turnover currently to 10-11% over the next three years.

The rest of Manor Farm’s sales are own-label products for supermarkets, who prefer to sell chickens using their own brands with a picture or name of the farmer displayed prominently to prove its origin.

Mr Carton and his brother Justin are the eighth generation of Cartons to own and run the chicken company, which has been in business for 241 years.

The latest investment by the Carton Bros in the business follows on from June, 2014, when the company was given the green light by Cavan County Council to expand the plant at Shercock.