Loughrea-headquartered Chanelle Pharma is expanding its manufacturing operations into Ballinasloe.
As part of a €5m investment announced today (27 May), Irish company Chanelle Pharma is to expand its manufacturing and distributing operations to Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
With support from Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, it will create 60 new jobs over the next five years as it builds on its existing operations in the region.
Chanelle Pharma is a privately owned manufacturer of generic medicines for humans and animals. Its founder, veterinary surgeon Michael Burke, set up the company in 1985. Since then it has grown to a team of 570 people with facilities in Loughrea and Oranmore in Galway and Amman in Jordan.
The business exports to more than 96 countries with key markets in the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, the Middle East and the US.
With this new investment, it will relocate its pet distribution business from Loughrea, the site of its corporate headquarters, to IDA Ireland’s business park in Ballinasloe. It will invest in warehousing and new manufacturing operations at the 65,000 sq ft facility.
It will also convert the existing Chanelle Pet premises in Loughrea to a new 35,000 sq ft manufacturing facility.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, TD, called the investment “a real boost to the local community and further evidence of the attractiveness of Ballinasloe as a place to invest”.
Enterprise Ireland’s new CEO, Leo Clancy, added: “In the course of a remarkable career, Michael Burke has built a truly world-class company in veterinary and human pharmaceuticals.
“Chanelle’s continued growth, driven through sustained investment in research and development, has generated hundreds of jobs for people in east Galway and beyond.”
Commenting on the company’s continued growth during Covid, Burke said: “Despite the global pandemic, we continue to see strong market demand for both our animal and human health products. Our future delivery pipeline is extensive and we are continuing to invest in and improve our manufacturing operations to further increase our delivery performance to our customers.
“We made extensive changes to our operations and all our employees bought into a zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19. It is a testament to everyone in our company that no production days were lost throughout the pandemic.
“This success is reflected in the strong R&D pipeline of future orders from customers in Ireland and internationally.”
Chanelle Pharma has not confirmed the exact nature of the new roles, but current vacancies span R&D and QC analysis, QA inspection, regulatory affairs and more.
