Foyle Food Group has announced a £15m investment to upgrade production at its Omagh site, including automated warehousing and packing equipment, giving beef processors a live example of capital being directed at automation as cattle costs and margins stay under pressure.

The investment is intended to improve how the company processes, packs and delivers beef, and will create seven new jobs across the Omagh facility alongside skills development through the group’s Foyle Futures programme covering leadership, technical and operational skills.

Invest NI has offered £2.9m through its Agri-Food Investment Initiative and skills development support, having worked with the company for three decades.

Foyle Food Group, founded in 1977 and family-owned by the Acheson family, is Omagh-headquartered and the largest dedicated beef processor on the island of Ireland, processing around 7,000 cattle a week across eight facilities in Northern Ireland, Donegal and England.

Terry Acheson, CEO of Foyle Food Group, said the investment is an important step in the evolution of the Omagh operations, allowing the group to invest in technology and equipment that improves efficiency, maintains product quality and better meets customer needs. Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald said the investment will help modernise Omagh operations and improve production processes, while Gráinne Moody, director of food and drink at Invest NI, called it a strong vote of confidence in Northern Ireland’s agri-food sector.

The investment reflects processors using automation to protect margins when cattle costs rise, with the group’s 2025 operating margin slipping to 3.7 per cent from 3.9 per cent as higher cattle prices took time to recover through pricing.

Turnover rose 20 per cent to £639m in 2025 on soaring beef prices, with about £150m of beef sales generated in the Republic of Ireland, showing the cross-border scale that automated packing must support.

For the sector, public agri-food support tied to skills development shows investment in automation being paired with workforce capability rather than headcount reduction, with seven jobs added.

The wider signal for the sector is that a leading Northern Ireland beef processor is reinvesting profits in automation, with Invest NI support, to defend competitiveness as buy-sell margins stay tight.

Source: Agriland / The Farmers Journal / The Irish News