SF Engineering continues to go from strength to strength

Specialising in high-quality systems for the food processing industry, SF also caters to wider markets with production line requirements involving the processing of fish, meat, poultry, snacks, confectionery, ready meals, fruit and vegetables, dairy, and bakery. SF Engineering supplies everything from innovative conveyor systems to high-tech weighers that are, for example, capable of packing delicate fresh meat strips into packs in a matter of seconds. Innovative 3D vision systems, X-ray quality control technology and end-of-the-line packing robots are just some of the applications that SF supplies to major food producers. From butchery and cutting to weighing, grading, portioning, and deboning to packing, stacking and dispatching, SF specialises in applications that can be monitored with advanced computer software solutions.

In 2009, SF acquired Opal FPS, a leading manufacturer of butchery systems headquartered in Cambridge, England, enabling SF to draw on 220 years of combined experience of bringing engineering solutions to the food industry.

With expanding exports to the UK, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Chile and Poland, SF has some 80 people employed in two production plants, about 50 in Grange and 30 in Cambridge. It also has about another 20 at a project base in Prague, in the Czech Republic.

Now, with an expanded production area and a 40% increase in manufacturing capacity, as well as a new R&D centre boosted by €1.5m investment in 2010, SF is to expand its workforce by 25% during the coming 12 months, split between its two production plants, with most of the jobs expected to be in Grange. SF has also invested heavily in what it regards as the heart of the company, its design department. With new top-ofthe-range computer technology and a recent "Solidworks 2011" upgrade, all SF designers now have the best resources available.

And while recruiting the right people in the local area has been a challenge, SF says it has always focused on hiring locally, pointing out that over the past 10 years, it has been one of the largest employers of engineering graduates from IT Sligo. Fifteen members of its current workforce in Grange are IT Sligo graduates.

As well as direct employment, SF estimates it supports another 50 in subcontracts and services to SF as well as 300 flights annually from Knock Airport and more than 200 bedrooms in County Sligo.

Last week, SF Engineering received the Manufacturing Exporter of the Year Award from the Irish Exporters' Association while company founder Seamus Farrell, son of the late councillor and senator Willie Farrell, is a a former recipient of the Business Person of the Year Award from Sligo Chamber.