Jul 23, 2014. /Lesprom Network/. Coillte invests Euro 59 million in its SmartPly facility in Belview, Waterford, Ireland. The investment will secure the plant as one of the region’s most important export industries and support a number of high skilled research and development positions. The expansion of the plant is also expected to create additional construction jobs across 2015 and 2016, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

SmartPly, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coillte, currently employs over 160 people directly in the Belview plant and 250 indirectly in the region. The plant uses trees which are harvested mainly in the South East region to manufacture innovative building products for export to 32 countries worldwide.

The Euro 59 million investment includes the upgrade of the current infrastructure and the development of a Panel Products Innovation Centre on the current site of the SmartPly panel board mill at Waterford Port, County Kilkenny.

Interim CEO Gerry Britchfield said: “This is a major vote of confidence by the shareholder in the forest services sector and will further embed our in-house innovation capabilities securing the viability of the plant for the future. The plant will also provide a valuable long term outlet for farmers for pulpwood from forest thinning, which are playing an increasingly important role in timber supply in Ireland, as well as underpinning an outlet for Coillte’s own pulpwood supply.”