Co Antrim Woodshavings Firm Awarded £50K Grant

A County Antrim firm has been awarded a £50,000 local government grant enabling it to purchase new equipment and create two new roles.

Cullybackey based Doherty Woodshavings Ltd has been at the forefront of developments in the agriculture industry for 20 years, primarily providing woodshavings and sawdust as bedding for poultry farmers and horses.

Over the past number of years the firm has developed the Sublime product, a specialist formulation of lime and graded sawdust that can be used as cattle bedding.

With the £50k grant from the Rural Development Programme, the company was able to purchase an automatic baler which will package and pallet Sublime Cattle Bedding into 20kg bales. This was only previously available in 600kg bags and involved a slow manual process of mixing and packing.

As a direct result of the project, they have also employed a general process operative and will be recruiting for a new sales person within the next 6 weeks.

Owen Doherty, Managing Director of Doherty Woodshavings Ltd, said: "Sublime bedding has been extremely well received in the dairy sector and offers an innovation bedding solution as it is a healthier cleaner alternative to traditional bedding.The new automated baler system allows us to provide the packaging option which the market has asked for and process this on a much larger scale.

"I would like to thank the Mid and East Antrim Local Action Group (LAG) Board as the grant we received will assist in our aim of developing the company into one of Northern Ireland’s leading agriculture bedding suppliers."

The Rural Business Investment Scheme offers financial support of up to 50% to eligible rural businesses. To date the Local Action Group have committed 1.5 million to businesses within Mid and East Antrim and as a result of this are on target to achieve 52 new full-time positions.

Mid and East Antrim Local Action Group is funded under Priority 6 (LEADER) of the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, and the European Union.