Waterford Chamber supplement_InBUSINESS Winter 2020

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KINGSLEY AIKINS, CEO, THE NETWORKING INSTITUTE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING CONNECTIONS CONNECTING IRISH BUSINESS

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WATERFORD CHAMBER OVERVIEW

Why Waterford?

Aerial view of Waterford City and North Quays

Waterford City and County offer the perfect location for business, and a great work/ life balance, says Gerald Hurley, CEO of Waterford Chamber.

As

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a result of the global pandemic, many people are choosing to leave larger cities for smaller cities and towns that offer a better work/life balance—and Waterford is right up there in terms of quality of life, maintains Waterford Chamber CEO Gerald Hurley. “This societal shift in staff and company behaviours presents immeasurable opportunities for Waterford.

“The recent announcement of funding for the North Quays is a game changer for the Waterford City region. According to Urbistat analysis, there is currently a catchment population of 604,000 within a 60-minute drive from Waterford City. Together with the current estimated retail leakage of €614m and the plans for the development of the city centre, that presents a huge opportunity for Waterford and those looking to set up business and relocate here.

“The North Quays is one of the best pieces of real estate in Europe and we have just been handed the key to unlock its potential, in the form of €110.6m in funding for infrastructure, which will enable the development of the site and the relocation of the station.” Waterford Chamber, on behalf of its 600+ members, persistently lobbied to secure funding for this long-awaited development.

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WATERFORD CHAMBER OVERVIEW

A CITY OF OPPORTUNITY “With the North Quays funding now secured, it’s time to move to the next critical piece of the puzzle–a university of substance for Waterford.

“Becoming a university city will be transformational in terms of the benefits to the local economy, attracting investment and not to mention the tremendous vibrancy it will bring to the city centre.”

By 2040, it is projected that 40% of new jobs being created will be in high-value added sectors such a high-tech manufacturing, professional and scientific and ICT sectors.

There are currently 300 jobs available in tech and pharma in the region.

According to Hurley, tech and innovation are leading the way in Waterford. “With 15,000 students and 5,000 graduating annually with a strong focus on STEM, Waterford City Region has a talent pipeline that is broad, deep and exceptionally versatile.

“In the last five years, WIT has secured €69.2m in research funding and has 27 research centres and groups under its umbrella. It is in the unique position of having three National Technology Gateways that are very much aligned to the high added-value sectors that drive employment growth within the Waterford City region.”

LEADING THE WAY IN INNOVATION Innovation is the common theme that brings together public, private and academic partners in Waterford. An example of this is the award-winning Toys4Enginners Conference & Expo. “This year we moved to a three-day online offering, which included conferences with industry experts, a digital expo of tech, pharma, engineering and life science companies from all over Ireland and a Meet the Buyer segment, which saw nearly 100 indigenous companies pitch to multinational buyers from across the country,” explains Hurley.

ENSURING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Waterford Chamber has a strong ethos to connect people to build a better business community. The Regional Leaders Programme offers ongoing mentoring.

Surfers and wildlife on Waterford’s scenic coastline.

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Danette Connolly, President, Waterford Chamber, Darragh O’Brien TD, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Gerald Hurley, CEO, Waterford Chamber

“Our programme is unique in that it is created by the business community for the business community and our leaders are the best in the business, giving of their time voluntarily to ensure we build a strong and vibrant business environment for all.

“Throughout the pandemic, we facilitated one-to-one meetings, speaker sessions and group webinars on digital platforms, which ensured everybody could complete the programme and not miss out on anything.

“Over the past four years, we have connected hundreds of business people throughout the region and they are still all active members of our alumni. That’s a very powerful network and one which will ensure Waterford’s future.”

Waterford now boasts a workforce of over 187,000 and is the sixth-fastest growing region in the EU in terms of job creation.

QUALITY OF LIFE Waterford’s secret weapon has to be the quality of life and work/life balance it offers. As one of the most scenic counties in the country, with a wealth of natural amenities, a move to Waterford can be successful not only in terms of career progression, but also for family relocation.

“The average house price in South East is 65% lower than South Dublin, while the childcare costs are 50% lower than Dublin.

“Couple that with a commute time of under 30 minutes for 70% of workers, 300km of beaches within 60 minutes, top-class golf courses, an array of water-based activities, wild mountain ranges, the renowned Waterford Greenway and over 50 festivals per year, and you can be guaranteed a wonderful lifestyle.

“Waterford has long been forgotten in terms of investment, which was acknowledged by Minister Darragh O’Brien when we met him at our offices recently.

But that has now passed and Waterford, Ireland’s oldest city, is on an upward trajectory and Waterford Chamber will be there to support the business community every step of the way,” Hurley concludes.

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Ireland’s oldest city is looking to the future and with investment and growth in the pipeline, the vision for the city and county is set to become reality.

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he county of Waterford, with Ireland’s oldest city at its heart, has a long history since its Viking origins, and now its story includes a compelling vision for the future. Project Ireland 2040, the national strategy for Ireland, sets ambitious targets for Waterford as a driver for growth in the South East region and as a counterbalance to Dublin.

The South East region is the sixth fastestgrowing region in the EU in terms of job growth, and a focus on compact growth in urban centres will see the population of Waterford City and suburbs grow by 30,00035,000. This growth will be supported by Ireland’s National Development Plan, a 10-year €115bn programme to upgrade State infrastructure in anticipation of the population increase.

The wider region offers companies a population of 604,000 people living in a 60-minute catchment which will rise to 804,000 by 2040 and a workforce of 187,000. The plan set out by Project Ireland 2040 aims for 17,000 jobs to be created in the Waterford City urban area and 83,000 jobs created across the South East region.

The Waterford City Region is currently creating an additional 1,000+ jobs annually.

NORTH QUAYS PROJECT The North Quays Strategic Development Zone is set to be the single largest enabler of regional economic growth, representing an opportunity for Waterford City to realise its role as the largest urban centre in Ireland’s largest region. It will deliver

Proposed North Quays development

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THE AWARD-WINNING VIRTUAL REALITY VIKING EXPERIENCE TOURISM ATTRACTION KING OF THE VIKINGS NEATLY ENCOMPASSES THE RANGE THAT WATERFORD HAS TO OFFER, FROM ITS RICH HISTORY TO A TECH-INFUSED FUTURE.” 73

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10 REASONS

to locate in

Waterford Ireland’s largest Regional City, outside Dublin, with a catchment population of 603,902 within a 60 minute drive

Ireland’s fastest growing city region where GVA (Gross Value Added) per capita growth has increased by 74% since 2000. The 7th fastest growing region in the EU in terms of GVA per capita.

Waterford City population to grow by 60% to 86,000 by 2040 with a projected 30% regional population growth to 804,000 population by 2040.

Waterford is Ireland’s Oldest City with a rich and varied cultural and industrial heritage which dates back centuries but continues today.

Waterford is a compact, vibrant, liveable and sustainable City with an enviable quality of life.

Waterford City Region will see €500 million investment in Ireland’s only regional Strategic Development Zone site outside Dublin.

Waterford City Region is home to Ireland’s lead Institute of Technology attracting more EU Horizon (H2020) funding than any other Institute of Technology and 2nd only to UCD.

Waterford City Region offers a competitive cost base where companies can realise a 33% cost saving per employee, as compared to Dublin region.

The Port of Waterford is a deepwater port connected to global shipping hubs, providing access to the European, American and Asian markets.

Waterford City Region has one of the most vibrant, structured, cohesive and collaborative innovation ecosystem in Ireland.

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1,500 new full time jobs directly related to the construction phase of the project alone. The North Quays project is the largest commercial development in Waterford and currently the largest urban regeneration project in the country. The combined private and public investment in the project is estimated at over €500m, with the private development delivering nearly 2,300 full time jobs by 2023 and with the creation of a further 4,500 indirect jobs in the community. A 7% growth rate to Waterford’s economy is anticipated as well as a 1.5 % growth to the wider South East economy.

The North Quays project will act as a catalyst for the development of commercial and residential land with direct sustainable access via the Waterford greenway to the City Centre and intercity locations allowing for active travel and associated health benefits, journey time saving, modal shift to more sustainable transport and reduced emissions.

VIBRANT REGION The region is vibrant, not only due to its growing reputation as a place to do business, but also with an abundance of amenities and world-class visitor attractions.

The vibrant centre of Waterford City offers a dynamic nightlife and exquisite dining experiences. A full calendar of festivals throughout the year brings the city alive, with arts festival Spraoi, Waterford Harvest Festival and Winterval among them.

The House of Waterford Crystal, one of Ireland’s top visitor attractions, is situated in the heart of Waterford’s historic Viking Triangle. The award-winning virtual reality (VR) Viking experience tourism attraction King of the Vikings neatly encompasses the range that Waterford has to offer, from its rich history to a tech-infused future.

Co Waterford is one of Ireland’s best-kept tourism secrets.

The unspoilt coastline boasts 49 pristine beaches, against a

Regina Mangan (pictured front right) with the Liberty Blue team

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Cllr. Damien Geoghegan, Mayor of Waterford City and County with David Cashman, CCO, Zevas

backdrop of rugged mountains with world-renowned glacial lakes. The Copper Coast UNESCO Geopark is an outdoor museum which tells the geological story of the landscape.

Waterford’s two mountain ranges, the Comeragh and Knockmealdown mountains, offer countless walking and hiking trails and spectacular drives through the dramatic scenery. The Waterford greenway between Waterford and Dungarvan, finished in 2017, has opened up an additional path from which to take in the spectacular views, and attracted hikers, walkers and outdoor enthusiasts from near and far.

WORK LIFE BALANCE With all this on the doorstep, it is unsurprising that according to the results of a relocation survey, 95% of respondents said they have a better work/life balance since moving to the Waterford City region. Regina Mangan, Director of Liberty Blue Estate Agents set up the business in 1997 and operates from Parnell St in Waterford, employing seven staff, along with 20 contractors providing property maintenance services. Her experience, since moving from Limerick in 1995, bears out those survey results, with a flourishing business and great location to live in.

As an ambassador for doing business in Waterford, she says there was no other place she would have considered setting up: “I believe Waterford offers a unique opportunity for businesses to grow their brands and connections because of its size and infrastructure.”

Having worked with the Local Enterprise Office over the past number of years she says, “I have seen first hand the fantastic support they provide for small businesses.” She herself reached out to them for marketing support during Covid-19 and reveals, “I was genuinely overwhelmed by their help. They go the extra mile every time for business owners.”

Listing the attractive qualities of Waterford, she first points

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The Copper Coast

to the cost effectiveness of rents and property prices, adding lack of traffic congestion, quality of life, access to the coastline, culture, theatre, the arts, festivals, great schools and more to the lengthy list.

From her family home in An Rinn outside Dungarvan she enjoys the best possible work-life balance: “I consider myself very lucky to be able to go for a run on the beach before I start work. I get to cycle on the Waterford Greenway with my boy at the weekend. People who come here on holidays say to me, ‘Regina you are living the dream’.”

PROSPERITY HUB The South East more than holds its own in terms of tech innovation, with 130 tech firms in the region, including names like AI bot platform ServisBot and the award-winning virtual reality software pioneers Immersive VR Education.

Crystal Valley Tech is a not-for-profit which promotes the tech community in the South East. The industry-led group, supported

by Sun Life, Immersive VR Education, Veri and WIT, has as its mission to influence the development of the national and regional investment in infrastructure, education, training and economic support. “To date Crystal Valley Tech has held two tech summits, organised jobs fairs, represented the South East on panels all over the country and has succeeded in getting the South East recognised as a growing region for tech,” notes Elaine Fennelly, CEO, who works tirelessly to promote the tech cluster in the area.

Alongside tech innovators, Zevas, which has recently opened a new hub in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, is a natural fit— established in 2001, it is a leading provider of outsourced and

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insource (client site) customer contact solutions, with a client roster that includes tech giants like Google, PayPal and Twitter.

Zevas recently opened a new hub in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. David Cashman, Chief Commercial Officer at Zevas, reveals the strategy behind the move was based on a study of the American model of ‘prosperity hubs’ where employers looking to expand and recruit would identify regional towns to set up in, that may previously been dependent on industry and manufacturing, which presented limited competition for talent compared to bigger cities. US studies showed interesting results—faster recruitment times, lower attrition rates and higher customer satisfaction from the employees themselves having a better work/life balance.

“When we came across Dungarvan it pretty much ticked all the boxes for us in terms of catchment size, and availability of talent. And then the commercials on it were favourable as well; obviously the price of square footage in Dungarvan versus Cork and Dublin is significantly cheaper.”

The company opened the facility in the centre of Dungarvan in September 2020 with 18 jobs filled (although they are currently working from home), and there is likely to be up to 30 roles eventually in the current space.

While a robust working-from-home strategy has seen the company take on employees from across Europe over the past year, Cashman maintains the strategic vision continues to be an employer of choice in hub regions: “We firmly want to recruit in Dungarvan, in Waterford, and create this really good employer value proposition…it’s not just the jobs that we’re creating, but it’s the spin-off business as well, all that contributes to the local economy.”

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Enhancing Treatments for Patients Waterford’s EirGen Pharma develops and supplies high potency specialty care medicines to improve and enhance the lives of patients.

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rom its campus in Waterford, EirGen Pharma develops and supplies high potency specialty care medicines to patients in more than 50 countries worldwide. It was established in 2005 and is part of OPKO Health since 2015.

The company’s Waterford campus consists of three main sites. These state-of-the-art and globally-accredited manufacturing environments provide sterile vial filling, tableting, capsule, soft gel manufacturing and packaging capabilities. A nearby R&D Centre accommodates EirGen’s development and analytical scientists working on the next generation of treatments for the company and its clients.

EirGen’s guiding principle is to improve and enhance the lives of patients, whether they are reached directly or through EirGen’s contract manufacturing and development customers across the pharmaceutical industry. Damien Burke, CEO, describes the company’s USP, the ways in which it adds value, thus: “We take existing drugs and find a way to make them more friendly to the patient. For example, for a critically ill cancer patient who may have difficulty swallowing, developing a product that is easier to swallow would have a significant benefit to the patient.”

Often, in the rush to get innovative and lifesaving drugs to the market, companies don’t take the time to explore all the available avenues that may enhance

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Damien Burke, CEO, EirGen Pharma

entrepreneurs and for nine years the business ran in an entrepreneurial way, building a high potency oral solid dose manufacturing business,” he explains.

“While we have been part of OPKO Healthcare since 2015 and supporting its product pipeline, we very much have autonomy to build our own business commercialising niche, high-value products on global markets,” he says. “Since OPKO bought EirGen there has been significant investment in the company which has seen the building of an Aseptic Fill & Finish and R&D facility and further investment in building a Packaging facility. In 2015 we had one facility, now we have three facilities all located in Waterford which is significant growth over the last five years.

IF WE CAN INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF THE DRUG THAT IS ABSORBED INTO THE BLOODSTREAM, THEN WE CAN POTENTIALLY LOWER THE DOSE AND ULTIMATELY HAVE FEWER SIDE EFFECTS, WHICH IS BETTER FOR THE PATIENT. treatment for all patients: “That’s where we come in,” notes Burke.

“Another example would be, if we can increase the percentage of the drug that is absorbed into the bloodstream, then we can potentially lower the dose and ultimately have fewer side effects, which is better for the patient who is going through so much with their cancer treatment.”

EVOLVING BUSINESS Burke joined EirGen in 2006 as one of the originating members of the start-up team, and has seen the company develop over the years since then. “The company was founded in 2006 by two local

“Offering multi-platform products in the high containment space, particularly in oncology, providing high-quality, high-value development, manufacturing and supply chain services we have a fantastic opportunity to build a unique business not only in Waterford but in Ireland.”

INNOVATION & DRIVE He points to the advantages of the location for business: “Waterford is Ireland’s oldest city and with that comes a lot of history that you can soak up as you walk the city streets but also there is a drive within the city to be innovative and support foreign direct investment while also

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supporting the entrepreneurial culture that has seen so many new companies start up in Waterford.

“Waterford has a lot of multinational companies that offer fantastic career progression opportunities particularly in the Pharma and medical device space.

It also boasts great supports if you are looking to start your own business and has great connectivity and infrastructure.

“On a personal level the main attraction about Waterford is that it is a fantastic location to achieve that which we all look for which is a work/life balance. You can live by the beach and be at work within 15 minutes.”

R&D FOCUS EirGen’s three sites in Waterford address different elements of the business. The commercial centre makes tablets, capsules and soft gel capsules in the high containment space for global markets (Europe, US, Japan as well as many other markets in South America, South East Asia, North Africa, Middle East etc).

The second site is an R&D centre focusing on the future pipeline for EirGen and OPKO. The third site is a packaging site which makes fully serialised sachet, blister and bottle packs for the global market.

The company has been actively building a corporate culture which emphasises the importance of innovation and R&D, which has led to results which surpassed all expectations coming from their work over the past year.

“EirGen is quite unique in the culture it has built over the last 12 months, we have moved from an entrepreneurial culture to a growing intrapreneurial culture,” Burke explains. “At the core of intrapreneurial culture is the promotion of innovation at all levels and all aspects of the organisation.

“This was crystallised in our Research and Innovation department where we created

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Aseptic Fill & Finish

an innovation product selection team. Their goal was to identify innovative products that the company would work on developing in the next five years.

We had hoped we would find two or three products but the team did so well we found 20 potential candidates, three of which we will work on transitioning to our product pipeline.”

High Potency Manufacture STEM TALENT With Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) just down the road, there is a readymade talent pool of graduates from its STEM subject degrees. “WIT has fantastic pharma and engineering degrees,” says Burke. “Graduates from both STEM areas are in big demand in industry in the South East and

beyond. We have a number of WIT graduates on our team and work with many more through our ties with the Pharmaceutical and Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre (PMBRC) and the South Eastern Applied Materials Research Centre (SEAM) at WIT,

WATERFORD AND THE SOUTHEAST HAS A REAL PHARMA HUB, THERE ARE A LOT OF GOOD LARGE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES IN THE LOCALITY WHICH MEANS THERE IS A HIGHLY EDUCATED PHARMA WORKFORCE WITHIN THE SOUTHEAST REGION InBUSINESS | WINTER 2020

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R&D Centre

Oral solid dose facility

High Potency Packaging

and with graduates working in companies like Tegan Innovations here in Waterford.

“We have also started working with WIT on its Lean Labs proposal which again will be a significant benefit to the locality in driving operational excellence in all industries in Waterford.

The college is crucial to our future success and more importantly, attaining university status would be a significant milestone for the region.”

In terms of recruitment, he notes, “Waterford and the South East has a real pharma hub, there are a lot of good large pharmaceutical companies in the locality which means there is a highly educated pharma workforce within the South East region.

There are always some positions that are difficult to recruit for but this is where we as a company need to be creative and innovative in our solutions, which

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can mean huge potential for career progression.”

AGILE & ADAPTING This translates into looking for creativity and innovation when recruiting, to shore up the company for the future, and further develop the intrapenurial culture. “As the competitive landscape ever changes with the benefits of global competition, the greatest skill to have in any organisation is to be agile. The ability to change in all aspects of our business is a significant benefit and selling point as we expand our brand globally.”

While Covid-19 has certainly not had a negative impact on the pharma industry, or demand for pharma products, EirGen has had to adapt in other ways over the past months. “The biggest impact has been the limitation of people on site, very early on with Covid-19 we made the decision

to have the majority of desk-based staff work from home and we have maintained the policy throughout the pandemic. This was certainly the right decision for the company and our colleagues as it reduced the risk significantly,” says Burke.

Staff morale has remained good through the pandemic, helped along by initiatives such as resilience workshops and a mindfulness talk over Zoom from musician and mental health advocate Bressie. “We have increased our employee sickness benefits, family health insurance, perform annual medicals for all employees and we work closely with Irish Life and encourage our colleagues to attend any of its webinars around wellness.

“Our colleagues have shown huge resilience in managing the change in how we work and supporting the needs of the business. We have introduced a number of measures to reduce the burden of change to make working at EirGen as easy as possible and to help our colleagues who work remotely to stay connected to the business and their own colleagues.”

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P

ittsburgh-headquartered UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centred, cost-effective, accountable care.

UPMC integrates more than 90,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites.

Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial, and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialisation arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International.

It has been in Ireland since 2006 when it opened a radiotherapy centre at Whitfield Clinic in Waterford, then later taking over the clinic in 2018 and renaming it to UPMC Whitfield Hospital.

Patricia Lane, General Manager of UPMC Whitfield Hospital, originally joined as Assistant Director of Nursing. She recalls how the relationship first began, when UPMC set up the radiotherapy centre: “In 2006 all patients in the South East either had to travel to Dublin or Cork for their radiotherapy. That’s where UPMC stepped in,opening up the centre to provide that radiotherapy for

The UPMC radiotherapy centre on the campus of Bon Secours Hospital Cork is the only facility in Munster to offer stereotactic radiosurgery, an advanced form of radiotherapy

Bringing Care Closer to Home UPMC is expanding across Ireland from its Waterford roots, with its mission to ‘bring care closer to home’, says Patricia Lane, General Manager of UPMC Whitfield Hospital.

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all patients of the South East, public and private.”

The unique relationship between UPMC and the HSE has continued, and during the pandemic, made for a quick transition for the private hospital to take on the cancer care from University Hospital Waterford.

“During Covid-19, the whole of the medical oncology, inpatient and day cases moved on site to Whitfield and it designated us as its Covid-19-free site. So with that medical oncology moved in here in its entirety,” says Lane.

“We were doing chemotherapy, palliative care, and cancer surgeries while the rest of the country was waiting for something to happen with their private partners.”

The UPMC Whitfield Hospital now covers 25 other specialties and has expanded from four operating

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theatres to six. Orthopaedic surgery is among the fastest-growing specialties, not only tying in nicely with the new UPMC Sports Medicine Clinic at WIT Arena, but also building on UPMC’s tradition in its native Pittsburgh with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

EXPANSION ACROSS IRELAND UPMC continues to expand its services in Ireland and its efforts to bring the best care “close to home”.

This includes the expansion of services at UPMC Kildare (formerly Clane General Hospital) and UPMC Whitfield Hospital, the addition of a new outpatient centre and new radiation capabilities at its joint venture cancer centre in Cork, the growth of its Concussion Network, and the creation of the UPMC Global Technology Operations Centre in Kilkenny. The group has also recently acquired the oldest private hospital in Ireland, the 105-year-old Aut Even hospital in Kilkenny—which is to be renamed UPMC Aut Even Hospital.

The 71-bed elective, private hospital with an 18-bed day surgery unit will benefit from UPMC’s planned investments in new or additional medical services and technologies.

The newly-opened Carlow town outreach centre is another example of the UPMC ‘Bringing Care Closer to Home’ motto in action. The centre offers men’s health and women’s health clinics, with urologists and gynaecologists running clinics, as

well as physio and radiation oncology clinics (where consultations can be carried out prior to treatment at the radiotherapy centres in Cork or Waterford). There is also an education centre for conferences and GP education. “We’ve done various sessions but the majority of them would be GP education sessions, where we invite the GPs in on their lunchtime for their CPD points, and they meet the consultants that would be working out of the clinic,” explains Lane.

GLOBAL OUTLOOK The Global Technology Operations Centre is set to support the health system’s continuing international expansion, from its facility in MacDonagh Junction. It will employ up to 60 skilled technology workers and other support staff over the next three years, adding to the more than 475 UPMC staff already in Ireland.

The project is supported by IDA Ireland and Kilkenny was chosen due to its proximity to other key UPMC facilities. The new centre gives the group the unique ability to accommodate regulatory, cultural and language requirements across its international sites in Ireland and Italy, where it has multiple healthcare facilities, as well as assisting with the creation of an academic medical centre in Kazakhstan (not owned by the group) and a planned partnership to manage a network of new hospitals in China.

UPMC Sports Medicine Clinic

UPMC SPORTS MEDICINE CLINIC AT WIT ARENA. The new UPMC Sports Medicine Clinic at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) Arena is the health system’s first international location dedicated to sports medicine. It offers a wide variety of equipment and services unique to the region, including: •

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UPMC Whitfield Hospital, Waterford

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The South East’s only AlterG® Antigravity Treadmill™, which allows for pain-free lower extremity rehabilitation by reducing gravitational forces in a fall-safe environment; Biodex technology, which guides return to play with validated, quantitative outcomes data obtained through computerised measurement of muscle function and output; Blood flow restriction rehabilitation, which uses a specialised tourniquet system to reduce blood flow to an extremity with the goal of increasing strength using low weight loads to mimic training at high loads; And Winback and shockwave therapy, two non-invasive, evidence-based treatments that accelerate healing from sportsrelated injuries.

“UPMC is proud to bring our communities access to advanced equipment and treatments close to home for athletes of all skill levels,” said David Beirne, UPMC International Senior Vice President and Managing Director of UPMC in Ireland. “Part of the UPMC International Sports Medicine Network, this clinic will provide patients with outcomes-driven care while prioritising safe return to play.”

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oillte, Ireland’s commercial forestry and land solutions company, is investing €44.4m to improve and upgrade MEDITE SMARTPLY’s SMARTPLY oriented strand board (OSB) plant in Co Waterford.

MEDITE SMARTPLY is part of Coillte, which, along with managing forests, is an innovative, FSC certified forest products manufacturer. Based in Clonmel (MEDITE) and Waterford (SMARTPLY), it produces a versatile range of medium density fibreboard (MDF) and OSB building products.

OSB comprises engineered wood similar to particle board, formed by adding adhesives and then compressing layers of wood flakes, and is commonly used in construction. It is a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to plywood for use in structural and non-structural applications.

On-going product innovation continues to widen the scope of application of SMARTPLY OSB into timber frame and low energy construction. Made from fast growing locally sourced FSC certified timber, SMARTPLY OSB panels are fully certified, structurally approved, CE compliant, legal and sustainable alternatives to tropical plywood.

MEDITE SMARPTLY products are exported to over 30 countries, and the manufacturing sites in

Clonmel and Waterford feature the latest production technology to deliver straighter, flatter and more consistent boards than ever before, in a range of sizes and thicknesses unparalleled within the industry.

Constant progression and investment has allowed MEDITE SMARTPLY to enter new diverse markets and sectors, meaning

SMARTPLY Harvest

that there is always a fresh pipeline of new products to address market demands.

ENHANCED EFFICIENCY The new investment will upgrade the drying plant, which has been in continuous operation since 1996, and will deliver a world-class drying/energy/screen system that will enhance resource efficiency and asset reliability while greatly increasing plant capacity. The project is underway and due to finish in Q2 2022.

The announcement comes at a critical time for MEDITE SMARTPLY as it looks to scale up production levels to meet the continual strong demand for its products. The improved output, as a result of the project, will further increase product availability as well as enable the company to develop new market sectors and opportunities as part of the company’s strategy and growth plan.

InBUSINESS | WINTER 2020

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SMARTPLY chips

SMARTPLY board drying

“We are delighted to announce the latest investment into our SMARTPLY plant which will provide a welcome economic boost to the region while enabling us to deliver our best-inclass timber panel products to even more customers,” says Pat Beardmore, Chief Operations Officer, MEDITE SMARTPLY. “This is the second significant investment we have made in SMARTPLY in the past five years, with a €59m project back in 2016. It is a unique product that is produced sustainably and to the highest level of quality. We’re delighted to be able to increase its availability to its international customer base.”

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22/12/2020 12:11