A bubble gum manufacturer is recruiting 40 workers at Blanchardstown, Co Dublin. Separately, 20 jobs will created in Co Mayo with the expansion of a local IT company.

Enterprise Ireland and four private investors have put £3 million into Zed Gum, a start-up firm which began operating last August. The company has projected sales of some £3.7 million (#4.7 million) of its bubble gum products in 2000-2001.

Zed Gum expects to generate 95 per cent of its business in European markets, where it has identified a niche for novelty products.

"Our products are geared to self-purchase by children," said managing director Mr Brendan Roantree. The firm already employs 35 and exports to Spain, Britain, France, Sweden, Norway and Australia.

Welcoming the investment, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Mr Walsh, said the bubble gum market in Europe was worth some £200 million each year.

Three Irish investors - Mr Roantree, Mr Niall Cummins and Mr Donal Kavanagh - established the firm as a joint venture with a consortium of private investors based in Belgium.

All of the investors have worked in the confectionery business previously.

Mr Roantree was formerly European sales director of a Canadian sweet manufacturer, Concord Confections.

In Mayo, IT data storage distributor CMS Peripherals is to create 20 jobs initially at the former Farah factory at Kiltimagh, which closed last July.