Over 100-year-old Northern Ireland soft drinks firm increases turnover by 50% following £300,000 investment in staff

Ballymena based soft drinks manufacturer, Norbev has increased its turnover by over 50% following an investment of almost £300,000 in the upskilling of its staff.

Founded in 1919, Norbev manufacturers beverages and soft drinks for customers including Aldi, Suntory (Lucozade), Talking Rain and Capri Sun, and exports 98% of its products to markets outside of Northern Ireland, including Great Britain and Europe.

Shona Blythe, managing director of Norbev, said: “In response to a business transformation, we identified the need to significantly invest in the development of our staff to increase our competitive edge. Invest NI’s support has been fundamental in enabling us to meet this need and become an employer with an encouraging employee culture.

“Invest NI also offered us one-to-one supply chain coaching which gave us a fresh perspective on our current supply chain and helped us to identify areas where we could improve efficiency, reduce costs and drive our productivity.”

During a visit to Norbev, Niall Casey, director of skills and competitiveness at Invest NI, explained: “We’ve worked with Norbev for over 17 years to support its continued growth and development. Our most recent support has enabled the company to improve efficiencies and increase productivity through creating a more highly skilled workforce.

“Norbev is a great example of how an investment in skills makes a business more likely to succeed, with it already seeing a significant increase in turnover, as well as an improvement in company morale.”

Congratulating the company, Des Gartland, Invest NI’s north eastern regional manager, added: “It’s great to visit Norbev’s facility in Ballymena today, and see first-hand how this investment has positively impacted the company’s performance.

“The results from this investment are not only great for the local economy, but also position the company as a valuable employer in the Mid and East Antrim area.”