Ambitious plan to expand Tayto Park could see 500 peak season jobs

A five-year development plan for Tayto Park, outside Ashbourne, could see the facility attracting up to 900,000 visitors a year and employing 500 people during peak season, according to Ray Coyle, CEO of Largo Foods, who operates the attraction. The company is to lodge a new planning application for expansion of the park later this year. Mr Coyle said that with support from the local community and Meath County Council, the facility could be developed into an even bigger visitor attraction in the area. He explained that the company would be making a planning application by the middle of 2012 for a five-year development plan which would include an extension of the current facility. He said a lot of investment in local infrastructure would be required to deal with the numbers it would attract. "We hope to continue to have activity-based and educational aspects. We never envisage having the bumper cars type of thing here," he added. Mr Coyle said that 2011 had been an "amazing year" at Tayto Park. "When we opened, we thought we would be employing up to 60 people at peak time, but we actually had 127 working here during the peak period and we have 44 full-time at the moment," he said. Tayto Park attracted 300,000 visitors last year, the first full year of its operation and its owner is hoping to increase that by a further 200,000 next summer. Mr Coyle said that businesses around Ashbourne had benefited from the knock-on effects of all the visitors it had brought to the area. Based at Kilbrew, Tayto Park features an adventure zone and playground as well as over 100 attractions with animsla such as porcupines, emus, wild cats and buffalo, gift shops and a restaurant. Business continues to be good for Largo Foods generally, despite losing a substantial sum by investing in a factory in Libya before the violence broke out there last year. The company posted a profit of €10 million in 2010 and, according to Mr Coyle, expects a continued growth in exports in the coming year. It saw a small growth in the UK market last year. He did suffer a setback, however, with his Libyan operation after investing in a €2 million factory in Libya. However, he hopes to revive this operation outside Tripoli when the situation stabilises. The 80,000 square foot factory was built in 2008 in a joint venture between Mr Coyle and a Libyan businessman who had worked as a Halal meat wholesaler in Ireland. It produced Tayto products for the Libyan market and had become profitable months before civil strife broke out in February last year. The operation was abandoned and equipment shipped back to Ireland, but the building survived the NATO bombings and civil war which led to the death of Col Gaddafi. Mr Coyle said he hopes to resume business there if the situation stabilises, and pointed out that the Libyans are still importing 500 boxes of Tayto snacks each month.