A £12.8 MILLION (€16.3 million) investment in its Waterford plant to increase manufacturing capacity for one of its fastest-growing lens products was announced yesterday by Bausch & Lomb.

The news comes less than a week after the firm announced a 1 per cent fourth-quarter fall in revenue from global business and will reassure staff about the Waterford operation's future.

Employment at the plant has reached a record 1,639, making Bausch & Lomb the biggest employer on a single site in Waterford, the company said.

The latest investment in its SofLens66(r) Toric product will lead to only a marginal increase in employment as some staff will be redeployed from manufacturing processes where demand for older lenses is "levelling off", it added in a statement.

Mr Frank O'Regan, general manager at the plant, said SofLens66(r) Toric was proving one of the most successful products developed by the company. Waterford manufactures lenses for export to the US, continental Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

In a separate statement yesterday, the firm named Mr O'Regan vice-president supply chain operations, giving him responsibility for its contact lens plants in England, Germany and Spain as well as its operations in Ireland.