PM Group has announced that it was recently awarded a design and project management contract in India for McCain Foods, the world’s largest producer of French fries and potato speciality foods.
The new US$69m plant in Ahmedabad, Gujarat (west coast of India) will accommodate the rising demand in the local market. PM Group has a long standing relationship with McCain on projects across Europe.
The announcement was made during a visit to PM Group’s office in Bangalore by the Minister for Training and Skills, Ciarán Cannon, TD. Minister Cannon is leading Ireland’s largest ever education delegation to India organized by Enterprise Ireland. The aim is to promote Ireland as a world-class destination for international education to young Indian students.
Speaking during the visit, Managing Director for PM Group in India, Krishna Kumar Gopala said: “Recent project wins and our growing reputation in India are a testament to our focus on design excellence and the high quality of the service we provide not only locally but across Asia, Europe and the USA. Key to our success has been attracting the right staff with the skills set to best service our clients. Without the availability of well qualified local staff, it would have made winning work of this calibre more difficult”.
Krishna Kumar noted “Investing in training and education development programmes such as our CPD programme, which provides ongoing training throughout the career lifecycle, is an important part of our strategy to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in international markets and as we look to capitalise on the current inward investment by MNCs in the food and pharma sectors in India.”
Congratulating PM Group on their announcement Minister Cannon said:“PM Group is a leading Irish services exporter with a world-class service offering. Securing this latest contract with McCain Foods in India demonstrates the quality of PM Group’s service offering and underlines their continued success in export markets around the world.”
Julie Sinnamon, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland, who is traveling with the delegation added: “This significant contract win in India is clear evidence that PM Group is successfully operating a Centre of Excellence business model based on the skills and experience of staff in its Cork and Dublin offices. The strong skills base in Ireland in turn supports the company’s overseas operations in winning global business contracts, while underpinning the growth and development of PM Group’s operations in Ireland.”
PM Group is currently working on projects in the growing Indian food and beverage and consumer products sectors for clients including McCain, Johnson & Johnson, Danone, Givaudan and Unilever. They are also completing a range of complex life science facilities for leading multi-national clients in India including Lonza, Biocon, Dr Reddy’s and U.S Pharmacopeia.
