Center Parcs dishes up over €5m to Irish food companies
CENTER Parcs, which will offer short family breaks in Longford Forest from next year, has agreed contracts worth €5.2m with four Irish food companies.
The companies set to benefit are Keelings, which will be the fresh produce and dairy supplier, plus Galway-based Heaney Meats, Coleraine-based Lynas Foodservice and Antrim’s Henderson Foodservice.
“We are delighted to work with these companies to ensure the food and beverage offering at our forest resort in Ireland is a very high standard,” Martin Dalby, chief executive of Center Parcs, said. “Our chosen suppliers carry the Board Bia Origin Green accreditation and this was a real re-assurance to us that we can deliver on the provenance and high quality that Irish families naturally expect of their food and dining experiences.”
Headquartered in Dublin, family-owned Keelings has operations in UK and Europe.
The group employs approximately 2,000 people.
Colm Bury, managing director of Keelings Select, said it was “wonderful” to see Center Parcs awarding contracts to local businesses: “With their focus on family time together, and our business being an Irish family business with strong heritage and experience, we believe this is a perfect partnership.”
Once completed, the
€233m resort will offer families the choice of 466 lodges and 30 apartments, which will be able to accommodate 2,500 guests.
The activity resort will provide guests with over
100 indoor and outdoor family activities, including a subtropical swimming paradise, as well as a range of restaurants and shops.
During its construction phase Center Parcs Longford Forest will create around 750 jobs, the company said. Once permanent, it estimates that it will provide a €32m boost to the economy. Founded in the Netherlands over 50 years ago, Center Parcs Group offers holiday breaks in a number of locations around Europe including Germany, the UK, Belgium, France, and its native Netherlands.
The Center Parcs Longford Forest resort is the group’s first foray into the Irish market. In 2015 Center Parcs UK, whose management the Irish resort falls under, was acquired by commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners.