BBC News NI south east reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A Warrenpoint food company that currently produces 84,000 sandwiches a day hopes to expand substantially thanks to a \u00a319m investment in jobs and automation.<\/p>\n As well as a number of high street cafes, Deli Lites has a large manufacturing base at the Milltown Industrial Estate in the County Down town.<\/p>\n The firm currently employs more than 300 people, but will invest more than \u00a36m to add a further 130 jobs, including skilled positions and 10 management posts.<\/p>\n Among the firm’s customers are supermarkets, coffee chains and international airlines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Co-founded by husband and wife Jackie and Brian Reid, the firm hopes a further \u00a312.8m investment in automation will help it broaden its product range, increase on-site capacity and reduce waste.<\/p>\n The firm currently has four premises at Milltown, but given its proximity to Warrenpoint Port and the main motorway network, finding suitable industrial space in Warrenpoint has been a long-term challenge.<\/p>\n Because of this, Brian Reid said the expansion will see the further expansion of existing sites rather than the development of a new one.<\/p>\n “We’re going to invest money here in Warrenpoint, in south Down,” he said.<\/p>\n “But space is at a premium in the industrial estate that we are in. <\/p>\n “But we have a plan to invest heavily in the capital, the automation and the AI integration here at Warrenpoint to make it into a world class manufacturing site. <\/p>\n “That’ll allow us to service customers wherever they are in the world.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Like many manufacturing businesses, finding staff has been a challenge.<\/p>\n “It isn’t at all easy, but we have a great team in the business that will be focused on going out and recruiting these people,” Ms Reid said.<\/p>\n “There’s incentives for our staff to see if they have friends or family that would be interested in a career here. <\/p>\n “This isn’t just operative level on the floor. There are careers here in technical, sales, marketing, commercial, logistics.”<\/p>\n Speaking at Thursday’s launch event, Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald said: “This is a company looking for new markets for their products and this investment will allow them to do that. <\/p>\n “They’ve based themselves locally, they already employ over 300 people locally and are going to employ more people locally so this is a major announcement here today.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The project has been supported by Invest NI’s Agri-Food Investment Initiative.<\/p>\n Gr\u00e1inne Moody, Invest NI’s director of food and drink, said: “The food and drink sector is very important to Northern Ireland and has been very heavily dependent on labour.<\/p>\n “But we have a productivity challenge in the sector so this initiative is about helping business to become more competitive, more productive and more efficient.<\/p>\n “Good jobs are obviously an element, but the productivity piece is the key element. <\/p>\n “There is an expectation when you invest in automation that you won’t be investing in jobs. <\/p>\n “But what we are finding is that there is an investment in high value jobs.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/1ed6\/live\/8b4af590-6885-11f0-818e-116d88bbdf01.jpg.webp\")
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