By Business & Finance 
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD today announced the creation of 200 new jobs over the next five years by Combilift as part of a €40m investment by the company over the next two years in building a new, state-of-the-art, greenfield manufacturing site.
The majority of the 200 jobs to be created in the next five years will be for skilled technicians and design engineers. A further 200 jobs will be created during the two year construction period of the new facility. This investment will position Combilift to double its current €150m turnover over the next five years. The company currently employs over 300 people between its current facilities in Monaghan town and in Clontibret.
Combilift has recently purchased 40 hectares of industrial zoned land on the Monaghan by-pass with plans to invest €40m in building a purpose-built, 40,000 square meter, greenfield global HQ and manufacturing facility with a devoted R&D building and adjoining back office facilities.
The company is best known for its wide range of multi-directional forklifts, Aisle-Master articulated forklifts and other innovative material handling solutions such as the Combilift Straddle Carrier, designed to handle large containers and over-sized loads. The company was set up by managing director Martin Mc Vicar and technical director Robert Moffett in 1998 and thanks to the continued 7% investment of turnover in R&D they export innovative products to over 75 countries.
Welcoming the announcement, An Taoiseach said: “Supporting recovery in the regions is behind this fantastic announcement today of an additional 200 jobs in Combilift and a further 200 construction related jobs. It is growing and dynamic Irish companies like Combilift which are driving a recovery across Ireland’s regions. Combilift’s new €40m facility in Monaghan will make a profound difference to the local economy and the national export economy. These new jobs will have a deeply positive impact on those who get back to work or take up new opportunities, but they also have a knock-on economic benefit for local businesses, shops, restaurants, tradespeople and service providers. This is part of the Government’s plan to secure economic recovery and see it spread to every part of the country”.
Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton, who has been accompanied by Combilift on several Enterprise Ireland trade missions around the world since taking office, said: “This is a great boost for Monaghan and the North East region, and a great example of what we are trying to achieve with our plan. Combilift is a world-class Irish exporting company, developing and manufacturing cutting edge products in a regional location for sale abroad, creating employment for hundreds of people in Monaghan. Irish companies like Combilift have huge potential to drive employment growth in regional locations, and tend to have even greater impact on the local economy through knock-on spending than multinationals due to their links with the area.”
Commenting today Martin Mc Vicar, managing director of Combilift, said: “With this greenfield investment and sufficient industrial-zoned land available on the new site for future expansion, Combilift are committed to continuing its organic growth in Monaghan for many years to come”. In addition to the new jobs that are being created, Combilift on behalf of the
mid-Tier Irish engineering companies are very pleased to announce that they are in the process of submitting an Apprenticeship Application to accredit our employees and employees of other Irish engineering companies as ‘Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) technicians’. Martin states that “this apprenticeship course plans to educate technicians to be competent in hydraulics, electrics, and troubleshooting diagnostics.”
