A flagship project of the Boyne Valley Food Innovation District, The Boyne Valley Food Hub, saw Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, turn the sod this past week. The venture will transform almost 800 m² of enterprise space at its Navan site into an innovative food hub with nine Food Grade units available for start-up and scaling food businesses.
This includes delivery of a timeshare development kitchen and food R&D lab, sensory testing facilities, a food specific co-working hub and a knowledge lab to create higher levels of connectivity, collaboration and innovation in the food and drink sector.
“The Food Hub will facilitate the development of scalable, sustainable and profitable food businesses across the Mid-East and North-East regions. When completed, the facility will support local entrepreneurs, new start-ups, and established SME companies to be at the forefront of innovation in the vibrant food sector which is growing in importance for the local economy. The Hub is a great example of how, through collaboration and clustering, we can provide world class facilities to futureproof the stream of talented people and companies operating in the food sector here,” Minister English commented.
He added: “The project, which secured €1.5m under my Department’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund, is one of the many enterprise initiatives the Government is supporting throughout the country. I expect today’s development will help inspire additional beneficial enterprise development projects to come forward for future funding opportunities for the betterment of County Meath and the Mid-East and North-East regions.”
The Hub is being developed at the existing Meath Enterprise Centre in Navan and will facilitate the development of scalable, sustainable and profitable food businesses across the Mid-East and North-East Regions.