Glanbia cheese plant expands

Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) is to seek planning permission for a major expansion at its Wexford cheese plant. The proposed €35m plan is supported by Enterprise Ireland and will double peak milk processing capacity at the plant.

Glanbia acquired Wexford Creamery in May 2014. During 2015, the plant at Rocklands produced almost 20,000 tonnes of cheddar cheese, as well as a stream of whey for further processing at GII’s Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny facility.

Jim Bergin, chief executive of Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII), says, “This proposed investment is a tremendous vote of confidence in the staff at our Wexford plant, which produced record volumes of cheese in 2015. Our milk suppliers in Wexford are amongst the fastest growing and most progressive in the Glanbia catchment area. This investment will also enable further growth in our highly popular Wexford Cheese brand, which is being marketed in Ireland, the UK, the US and most recently, the Middle East”.

In the ten months since milk quota abolition last April, milk supply from GII’s 4,800 farmer suppliers has grown by 22%. In 2015, across its four Irish milk-processing locations, the company processed in excess of two billion litres of milk for the first time.

Henry Corbally, chairman of GII, adds, “This latest investment is part of Glanbia’s commitment to meet the growth ambitions of our milk suppliers. In the past three years, GII has invested €235m at the company’s milk processing plants at Virginia (Co Cavan), Ballyragget and Belview (Co Kilkenny).”

As well as increasing GII’s cheese processing capacity, the Wexford investment will deliver a whey stream for the sports nutrition sector, which is one of Glanbia’s key market platforms.