Lunch Bag serves up more jobs

Deputy Alan Kelly has welcomed confirmation by The Lunch Bag, Ireland’s largest provider of primary school lunches, that it will double its workforce at its Nenagh headquarters to 500 over the next two years.

Speaking following a meeting with the company, at which he was updated on the project, Deputy Kelly said that the pace of progress at the site and company has been one of Nenagh’s biggest success stories.

The Lunch Bag, which delivers hot meals daily free to children across the country, last year announced a €7.5m expansion at the site where it currently employs 250 staff. But with plans to more than double its existing daily delivery of 100,000 hot school meals to national school children over the coming years, this will now, Deputy Kelly stated, result in a doubling of staff at the Lisbunny site.

“I fought to get The Lunch Bag to Nenagh five years ago, and it is one of the greatest success stories I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in over the years in the constituency. We all love the foreign direct investment coming in and I’ve been privileged to secure that for Nenagh, but home-grown Irish business is equally if not more satisfying,” said Deputy Kelly.

A GREAT OUTCOME

“Better again when that homegrown business is all about ensuring children across our county and country are receiving free daily nutritious, hot meals at their desk. It’s giving them the nutrition intake they need; it’s enabling parents cut back on their spend on food, their food waste and, of course, the time involved every morning in preparing lunches for their children.

It’s one of the greatest outcomes we’ve had here in Nenagh.”

work ethic

Deputy Kelly has been working with the company since they first arrived in Nenagh in 2019 and has been struck, he says, by their dedication to standards, work ethic and commitment to tackling obesity.

“I was delighted to have been able to help CEO Ray Nangle and MD Ger Killian to find a location for their business in Nenagh in 2019. From the very start, they made a simple commitment and that was if I could help them on getting their project in place, their side of the bargain was that they would grow their business and employ local people.

“They’ve more than honoured that as they’ve grown from a standing start just five years ago to having 250 people hired in Nenagh today and they now expect to double that to 500 jobs in the next two years or so.

PHENOMENAL INJECTION

Deputy Kelly added: “That’s a phenomenal injection to the economy of Nenagh and wider region. People are coming to work there daily not just from Nenagh but Thurles, Templemore, Roscrea, Newport and Ballina. It’s a huge boost to the town and, moreover, a huge boost to the families of those they are employing.

“They have a relentless pursuit there of standards and that’s critically important as that’s what we want to hear when it comes to supplying this service to children across the country.”

The expansion is necessitated by the growth of the Government’s Hot School Meals scheme.

Said CEO Ray Nangle: “Nenagh has been very good to us. We chose it because of the availability of space and because of its accessibility, so close to the motorway network and hugely central location.

“We’ve been able to hire a great team here but we’ve also got huge support, including from Deputy Kelly.

“I want to thank him for all the support he has given us over the past five years. He’s been instrumental in us coming to Nenagh in the first place and himself and Tipperary County Council have been a great support.”

Managing Director Ger Killian said: “School meals are going to be a fantastic addition to the economy, families and communities. We are so delighted that Alan had the foresight to support us when we came up the idea of school meals a few years ago and to help us be part of bringing that to over half the children of Ireland.

“The very first day he came here, he was straight forward with us. He said he would support us if we supported the area by hiring as many people as we possibly could. We are doing that and it’s having a huge knock-on effect for the local community. But now we need to go to another level and we’ve no doubt Deputy Kelly and the people of Nenagh and North Tipperary will help us do that.”

The Lunch Bag’s expansion will also see significant indirect employment opportunities for supporting services from food producers to fleet maintenance and more in between.