Hot on the heels of the news that 200 jobs are to be created at the former Suir Pharma plant in Clonmel C&C have confirmed a major investment just a few hundred metres further along the N24 at their Annerville site.
The company describes this new bottling line as a sign of the company's commitment to the south Tipp town as its key manufacturing site.
The drinks company is to plough €10 million into their Annerville plant to meet the growing demands of both the Irish and British markets.
The new high-tech bottling line will have the ability to bottle an additional 40 million litres per year – an increase of about 20 per cent in the total capacity of the site.
As well as their own brands such as Bulmers, Magners and Tipperary Water the Waterford road plant as well as cider and water for own label brands such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.
Mayor of the Clonmel Borough District Andy Moloney says this is a major turning point for C&C although he admits the news will come as little solace to Borrisoleigh where over 200 jobs were lost with the closure of the Gleeson's plant last year.
At the time workers in Borrisoleigh were given the option of redundancy or moving to Clonmel – around 20 are understood to have taken up the option to relocate.
Councillor Moloney accepts that this may be a bitter pill for the former Borrisoleigh staff.
Commercial cider production was started in Dowd's Lane in the 1930s, by local man William Magner.
In 1937 he joined forces with the English cider-makers H.P. Bulmer.
There have long been calls to have the original Dowd's Lane site used as a visitor centre marking the long history of cider making in the town along the lines of the Guinness Storehouse and Midleton Distillery.
A motion by Mayor Moloney to re-open negotiations with C&C appears to have borne fruit.
