Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald was pleased to announce the investment<\/p>\n
07:03, 18 Aug 2025Updated 07:11, 18 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Versafix-1-1JPG.jpg\")
(L-R) Martin McMenamin, Business Development Manager, Versaffix; Victoria Byrne, Head of Customer Service, Viltra; John McKibben, Southern Regional Manager, Invest NI; Dr Caoimhe Archibald, Economy Minister; Steven Heaney, Managing Director, Sheaney; Rory McKeever, Managing Director, Pronto Engineering.<\/p>\n
The Economy Minister has said they are pleased to announced nearly \u00a32million in investment to create jobs and boost exports in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Four companies from the Newry <\/a>and South Armagh<\/a> areas, Pronto Engineering, Sheaney, Versaffix, and Viltra, have announced the investment with Invest NI supporting it with \u00a3197,000 of funding.<\/p>\n Making the announcement during a visit to Versaffix, a manufacturer of tiltrotators for excavators in Lislea, where the Minister met representatives from all four companies, Dr Caoimhe Archibald<\/a> said: \u201cSMEs are the backbone of our economy and access to financial support for these types of businesses is crucial. I was encouraged to meet all four companies who have benefited from Invest NI\u2019s support and hear how these investments have increased capacity, driven sales, and unlocked new export opportunities.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Rachel Reeves arrived in Belfast with warm words, but we’ve heard them all before<\/a>READ MORE: Claire\u2019s Accessories to appoint administrators with 12 NI stores at risk<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSupporting rural SMEs is essential to creating inclusive and long-term economic resilience. It also aligns with my economic vision to recalibrate economic development across the north by creating good jobs and addressing historic regional imbalances.\u201d<\/p>\n The roles from the four companies include software engineers, technicians, business development managers, and a range of production, mechanical, electrical and managerial roles.<\/p>\n Versaffix is investing \u00a3701,000 in its business and creating eight new jobs with support from Invest NI. Martin McMenamin, Business Development Manager, at Versaffix, said: \u201cAs an early-stage business, this investment will enable us to build our management team and increase production capacity, supporting us to commercialise our product and expand our global reach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re also investing in market development activities to help us to grow sales in the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain, before launching our tiltrotator products in the European market. The advice and support from Invest NI has given us the confidence to take this exciting next step for our business.\u201d<\/p>\n Viltra, a provider of wastewater treatment solutions in Newry, is investing \u00a3514,000 to strengthen its management team and production capacity. The company will recruit six new roles, helping it to increase exports to the south of Ireland and France and take on larger projects.<\/p>\n Pronto Engineering, based in Camlough, designs complex industrial automation solutions and is investing \u00a3462,000 to increase productivity, grow sales in target markets and create six jobs.<\/p>\n And Sheaney, a specialist in marine, civil engineering and infrastructure project management, also in Newry, is investing \u00a3270,000 to increase its exports to the South of Ireland and create four jobs.<\/p>\n Steven Heaney, Managing Director at Sheaney, said: \u201cThis investment will equip us to capitalise on opportunities in the Republic of Ireland, building on our existing contract in Dublin port. We\u2019re growing our geotechnical, sales and marketing expertise and building our capacity to support new and existing infrastructure projects.\u201d<\/p>\n John McKibben, Southern Regional Manager at Invest NI, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve worked closely with Pronto Engineering, Sheaney, Versaffix, and Viltra, supporting them to improve operational efficiencies, strengthen leadership, boost competitiveness and increase digitalisation. They are now in the position to increase their workforces and excitingly, grow sales outside Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to supporting businesses in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area and offered almost \u00a38m of support to over 130 companies here in 2024-25. This will contribute to a total investment of \u00a347m in the local economy and the creation of 289 new jobs, contributing towards the Minister\u2019s drive for regional balance.\u201d<\/p>\n For information on how Invest NI supports businesses in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, visit investni.com<\/a><\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage<\/strong> here<\/a> <\/strong>and<\/strong> sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> <\/strong>here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald was pleased to announce the investment 07:03, 18 Aug 2025Updated 07:11, 18 Aug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[3085,80374,30996,3374,5820,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-353662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-business-news","9":"tag-co-armagh","10":"tag-department-for-the-economy","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-newry","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115048651971738148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}