A waste management firm has announced it is to invest £2 million to expand its plant in Newry.

Re-Gen Waste Ltd also confirmed 30 new jobs will be recruited during the construction phase and 12 full time positions will be created to support the recovery of the highest grades of recycled paper, taking the total workforce up to 205.

The firm will also invest another £7 million over the next three years.

The new investment will enable the company to significantly increase paper exports so that they can continue to serve customers across the world for many years to come.

Re-Gen's managing director Joseph Doherty said: "The completion of the project is hugely significant on a number of fronts.

"Firstly as an ambitious company with innovation at the core of everything we do, we are making a statement of intent about our commitment to our employees and aspirations for the future.

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"The plant upgrade will enable us to achieve a much improved performance, giving us a far stronger and more competitive position in the global paper market.

"We learned from the World Trade Organisation that the Chinese Government intended to ban certain grades of paper, which we were supplying to their top three mills.

"In order to meet this challenge rapidly we pumped £2 million into our R&D Department to help us install optical sorting, ballistic separators and a range of eddy currents and steel magnets, which will allow us to offer China and other markets, the higher grades of paper they are now demanding.

"Our in-house R&D department, which includes a stand-alone engineering and fabrication team (logistics and plant) allows us to make new machinery and operational efficiencies so we can respond immediately to market demands and are better equipped to defend ourselves against the challenges from large customers altering their specifications.

"Additionally we have sourced new customers in Europe, specifically Germany and Turkey, who will take all grades of recovered paper."

Re-Gen will generate turnover this year in excess of £28 million with operations including Waste to Energy (WtE), Mixed Dry Recycling (MDR) processing, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) processing and engineering."

(CD/LM)