IRELAND (From the Irish Times) -- Huhtamaki, the food and drink packaging company, plans to invest £4.9 million in its Lurgan plant and create 12 additional full time jobs on site.

A further 80 temporary jobs are also expected to be created during installation of new machinery at the plant.

The company, which currently employs more than 200 people, specializes in manufacturing molded fiber.

Huhtamaki says it is increasing capacity in Lurgan to service customer demand as a result of the rapid growth of the egg market in the UK and Ireland.

Philip Woolsey, general manager of Huhtamaki Lurgan, said the investment package will also deliver a significant boost for the local economy by increasing business opportunities for local suppliers.

"This investment represents a huge vote of confidence in the strength, quality and dedication of our team at the Lurgan plant in what is our 80th anniversary.

"We have increased our product range, increased efficiency and improved our customer orientation. Now we have the confidence to install new state-of-the-art machinery to enable future growth and further improve our performance for our customers," Woolsey added.

The boost for the North's manufacturing sector comes just days after the Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell established a new Energy and Manufacturing Advisory Group to find ways of tackling high local energy costs.

Woolsey said that while manufacturing firms in the North do face specific challenges in terms of energy prices and logistics, Huhtamaki had been able to generate "efficiencies to offset some of the disadvantages of being located in Northern Ireland".