In a significant vote of confidence in its Irish workforce, Britvic has invested in a rebranding of its iconic Club brand. Ireland’s favourite citrus drink is a proud supporter of the Supporting Quality campaign.
The Club drinks range, which includes Club Orange and Diet Orange, Club Rock Shandy, Club Lemon and the newly-released, limited edition flavour Club Passion, and other Club mixers, is produced in the Britvic plant on the Kylemore Road in Dublin.
John Montgomery, who is SIPTU shop steward at the Britvic plant, told Liberty: “The rebranding of the Club range shows the importance of a company and its workforce working together to produce quality products.
“The workforce has shown an ability to change as part of this rebranding project. It has seen production machines being set up to cope with a new size of bottle and other changes. “The workers have taken these changes in their stride and are enthusiastic about this new phase for the Club range of products.”
SIPTU Organiser, Colm Casserly said: “The rebranding of the Club range of products is a vote of confidence in the workers. “It also indicates the loyalty shown by Irish consumers to quality products produced in Ireland.”
Around 140 workers are employed at the Kylemore Road plant, which has been in operation since the late 1960s. All workers on the plant floor are members of SIPTU.
Operations Director Mat Thewlis said: “Our Dublin plant has benefited from more than €3.5m of investment in equipment in the last 18 months. “This has helped enormously in our efforts to improve production efficiency and flexibility, maintaining our viability as the largest indigenous soft drink manufacturer for Ireland.“
Club is one of the leading brands in the Supporting Quality campaign that seeks to promote products produced in quality workplaces in Ireland to consumers. Commercial Director at Britvic Ireland, Kevin Donnelly, told Liberty: “We believe that local focus makes a real difference to the economy, to our employees, to our consumers and to our customers. “Over 95% of what we sell in Ireland – great brands such as Club, Miwadi, Ballygowan, TK, Cidona, Energise, Edge, C&C Lemonades, Robinsons and Fruit Shoot – are made in Ireland, in our two factories, Ballyfermot in Dublin and Newcastle West in Limerick. “Our factories are also producing for international markets, including the UK and the USA.”
Fabia Gavin, Marketing Director of the Supporting Quality campaign said: “The Supporting Quality campaign is celebrating its first anniversary as an innovative consumer-led campaign. Our aim from the start is about the protection of quality jobs in Ireland by promoting quality services and products manufactured in Ireland. “We are proud to support Britvic and Club and the significant investment in both the workforce and the future of Britvic. “It is only by supporting quality brands manufactured in Ireland that we can all play our part in ensuring that we protect quality jobs in Ireland.”
SIPTU Divisional Organiser, Gerry McCormack, said: “The Manufacturing Division is happy with the progress of the Supporting Quality Campaign and the positive impact it is having on providing and protecting quality jobs in Ireland.
“The workforce in Britvic can only benefit from this campaign which will help to sustain these skilled jobs into the future”.
This first appeared in Liberty paper in June 2013.