THE American owners of the recently revived J&J McConnell’s whiskey brand announced a £22.3m investment in its new distillery and visitor centre at Belfast’s old Crumlin Road Gaol in a move it said will create 49 jobs.
Foodservice provider Sysco Ireland revealed plans to double the size of its Northern Ireland operation within five years with a £23m investment at Nutt’s Corner. The plans for the massive distribution facility centre on a 20-acre site, which if approved will create 90 jobs and grow Sysco's workforce in the north to 230.
US software firm Harness announced plans to create 80 jobs in the north. Jyoti Bansal, who founded the Silicon Valley company in 2017, told The Irish News the tech firm is invested in Belfast for the long-term.
The long-term future of the Stormont Hotel in east Belfast looked uncertain in August after a new company outlined ambitions to turn the site into a retirement living complex. The hotel is still owned and operated by the Hastings Group, but Summerhill Retirement Developments Ltd embarked on a planning exercise to explore the feasibility of turning the site into a care home with assisted living apartments for the over 55s. In a statement, Hastings described it as “a speculative planning exercise being undertaken by a third party”.
Drinks can manufacturer Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) secured planning approval for its new £150m can factory in Co Antrim during August. The 460,000 sq ft facility at Invest NI’s Global Point Business Park in Newtownabbey is expected to create 160 jobs.
In August, the Office for National Statistics announced UK inflation had reached double. It said the consumer price index increased to 10.1 per cent for the 12 months to July 2022. Meanwhile, house prices in the north hit a 14-year high, with the official government index putting the average home at £169,063, around £30,000 more than at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moy Park blamed the impact of rising costs across the poultry industry after announcing a £50m hit to its profits in 2021. The north's largest private sector business reported a 4.8 per cent (£71m) rise in turnover to £1.53bn in 2021. But Moy Park's costs rose by 10 per cent (£122m) over the same period, resulting in the group's pre-tax profits sliding by 60 per cent from £82.7m in 2020 to £32.7m last year. The group said it had faced a year of “unprecedented cost increases in feed, utilities and labour” during 2021.
In August, the Fitzpatrick family confirmed plans to close the Utopia gift store in Belfast city centre after 43 years of trading. The Fountain Centre unit is to be transformed into a new reception area for the The Irish News and Q Radio, as part of the moves to centralise the family’s media operations under one roof.
Just few weeks later, the neighbouring McKay’s Confectioners, one of the city’s oldest sweet shops, closed after almost half a century of trading. Started by brothers Sean and Henry McKay 46 years ago, Sean’s daughter Natalie, who ran the Queen’s Arcade shop for the past 22 years, said the loss of footfall in the city centre had hit the business.
Ballymena bus manufacturer Wrightbus has landed an order to supply almost 200 electric buses to England during August. The deal with First Bus was valued at £81m, backed with a UK government grant of £38m.
