Irish convenience foods company Greencore today opened its first greenfield sandwich-making facility in the US.
The company is investing $40m in the plant, which will create 400 jobs in Rhode Island and use up to 900 tonnes of Irish cheese ever year.
Governor of Rhode Island Gina Raimondo was also present at the opening of the 9,900 square metre plant.
She said she was delighted to have an Irish company packaging fresh foods in Rhode Island, and welcomed Greencore to the area, saying that California might have Silicon Valley but Rhode Island wanted to become the Food Valley.
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney was also present at the launch and said that Greencore was a proud Irish company with a good sourcing policy.
He said the sandwich-making facility used Irish cheese supplied by Glanbia and that the plant when up and running would use 907,000kg of Irish cheese every year.
There are currently seven Greencore plants in the US making fresh packaged sandwiches and other 'food-to-go'.
The Rhode Island plant will be the company's northeast hub, serving around 56 million people in eight states and supplying convenience stores and other small shops.
Greencore is currently the exclusive supplier of packaged sandwiches to Starbucks and the 7-11 convenience store chain in the US.
