The food service sector in Ireland will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 at the earliest, according to a new report by Bord Bia. While the value of the sector increased by 14.6% this year, the Irish food promotion board said it remains 41% lower than pre-pandemic turnover levels. Bord Bia said it expects the value of the industry for 2021 to reach €5.15 billion. | Business representative group Ibec has said the economy is going through a period of "exceptional growth" despite Covid and that should allow the worst impacted sectors to be supported through the winter under the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme. In its latest Quarterly Economic Outlook, Ibec expects the economy to grow this year by 13% and by 6% next year. | Irish frozen foods brand Strong Roots has agreed to a $55m investment from McCain Foods as part of a strategic partnership between the two firms. The deal will see Strong Roots gain access to McCain's global footprint to help expand its business to new countries and retailers. McCain’s will take a minority stake in Strong Roots, with two members of its senior management team also set to join the Strong Roots board. | The new dedicated rescue process for small companies, that makes restructuring faster, cheaper and more efficient, launches from today. Similar to examinership, the scheme is available to eligible to all small and micro businesses in the country. However, examinership was seen as too slow and cumbersome for many small firms, leading the Government to accede to calls for a more streamlined process for SMEs. | Consulting company Infosys BPM is to create 250 jobs in Waterford city with the development of a new delivery centre. The facility will be based at Railway Square in the city and will add to the firm's existing operations in Wexford, Clonmel, Craigavon, as well as Waterford. Infosys BPM is the business process management arm of multi-national Infosys and offers consulting services in the telecommunications, manufacturing, social media, healthcare and technical sectors. | 100 new jobs have been created in medical technology company BD Drogheda after a €62m investment in new equipment to expand its production of syringes at its Donore Road site. The new 30,000sq ft facility has started production and 50 of the 100 new jobs have been filled. The remaining positions will be filled over the next two years as production reaches full capacity.   |||