Kerry Group has announced plans for a new Digital Centre of Excellence to "increase operational efficiencies and enhance customer connectivity".

The centre will be built at an existing Kerry site in Naas, Co Kildare with the support of a €7.5m grant from Enterprise Ireland.

The food group said the planned facility represents a continuation of its approach to investing in technology and process enhancement to improve operational efficiency and capability.

Work at the Centre of Excellence will be geared towards enhancing business and productivity through digital enablement initiatives across Kerry's operations, R&D, commercial activities and global business services.

The group also intends to utilise artificial intelligence solutions to improve business processes and further enhance customer partnerships.

Kerry has piloted a number of digital initiatives over the past 12 to 18 months and will upscale their deployment, in addition to commencing a range of further digital excellence enablement initiatives over the next two years.

The pilot initiatives have included the launch of services such as the KerryNow customer portal, which streamlines and enhances a range of activities, from order tracking and the management of product portfolios, to value-added services, such as new product development through AI and Kerry’s proprietary data.

“The Digital Centre of Excellence creates exciting opportunities to accelerate our business. The initiative represents a new aspect of transformation at Kerry," said Shane McGibney, chief business transformation officer at Kerry.

"We appreciate Enterprise Ireland’s support and the agency's ongoing engagement with Kerry over many years."

Jenny Melia, executive director at Enterprise Ireland, said: “This investment is further proof of Kerry Group's commitment to innovation and commercial excellence.

"Enterprise Ireland has supported this development under the Research, Development and Innovation Fund, which supports investment in large-scale transformation projects to increase company competitiveness and further places Ireland as a market leader in innovation.

"Enterprise Ireland is proud to support this new Centre of Excellence at the Kerry Global Innovation Centre in Kildare and we remain committed to supporting Irish companies like Kerry on their innovation agenda to further build on the resilience and competitiveness of the Irish food sector.”

Kerry reported group revenue of €8bn and earnings of nearly €1.2bn in 2023, and saw sales drop 5.9% in the first half of last year. The group recently completed the first phase of the sale of its dairy processing business to Kerry Co-Operative Creameries Ltd, its largest shareholder.

(Pic: Supplied)