The Republic’s largest filtered water provider has announced a multimillion euro investment to expand operations that will mean it adds more than 100 jobs over the next three years.Culligan’s, previously known as Celtic Water Solutions, expects to add 54 jobs over the next year and a further 48 by 2029, bringing overall employment to about 300 people. The business has already grown its Irish workforce 55 per cent over the past three years.The company will be filling positions in areas such as water softening filtration and water cooler technicians, delivery drivers and customer service agents.While exact details of the investment have not been publicised by the company, it effectively involves the cost of the new hires.“With depots located in Dublin, Galway and Cork, the investment will help the company expand its delivery fleet, which is already the industry’s largest in-house delivery team in Ireland,” said the company.With brands such as Waterlogic, Tipperary Water and Glenpatrick Water in its portfolio, Culligan delivers “more than 600,000 reusable 19 litre water bottle drums to businesses across Ireland” annually, the company said, amounting to more than 11.35 million litres of water a year.The business “has been in Ireland for many years, and through different brands and company names, a lot of people have experienced our services”, said managing director John O’Connor.“We’re now at the point where we are ready to press on. The demand is there and it’s our challenge to meet it.” O’Connor characterised the investment as a commitment from the group to enhance services to make it the best offer on the market.“We’ve had good growth over the last few years [and] there’s a lot of confidence within the Irish market,” he said.“We want to grow in the most sustainable way possible,” he added, noting the company did not produce or sell single-use plastic through any of its products. If this summer has taught us anything, it’s that conserving and managing our water supply will be a critical part of our lives in the years to come,” he said.The company operates through two primary streams, he added, with one focusing on commercial supply of filtered water to schools, offices, hotels and government departments. The other is more residentially minded and provides “water solutions” such as softening treatments to reduce limescale and reverse osmosis.These services “can extend the lifespan of everyday appliances” such as kettles, shower heads and pipes, said O’Connor, noting that the company had “helped reduce the need for 45 billion single-use plastic bottles globally”.