Valio invests in storage and automation at Joensuu cheese site
Credit: Valio
Valio is investing in a new ripening warehouse to be built at its Joensuu factory in Finland. The investment is worth approximately €30 million. Construction work on the expansion of the warehouse to be built in connection with the factory will start immediately and will be completed by the end of 2027. The investment covers the construction of the expansion of the ripening warehouse at Valio’s Joensuu factory and the automation of operations.
At the same time, the premises of the old ripening warehouse will be renovated for the production lines to be transferred from the Vantaa factory. Cheese slicing and grating as well as the production of processed cheese will be transferred from the Vantaa factory to Joensuu.
The investment is related to Valio’s plans to transfer production from the Vantaa factory to Joensuu in stages during 2025–2027. The investment will bring the entire cheese making process under one roof at the Joensuu factory. Milk collected from Valio’s farms is boiled into cheese, which is salted and finally ripened in the warehouse. After ripening, the cheeses continue to be processed, ie, packaged in pieces, sliced or grated.
In the future, the factory will also produce processed cheeses. The new ripening warehouse is highly automated, which brings efficiency and savings to the factory’s operations. The aim is to utilise all possible side streams as well as possible in cheese production, the company says.
“The expansion will create a total of about a hundred new jobs at the Joensuu factory within a couple of years. New positions will be created as the new production lines and facilities are gradually put into operation. At this stage, we have already recruited 15 new employees and during the rest of the year, a few dozen more new positions will open up on the slicing lines. Valio employees have also moved from the Vantaa factory to work in Joensuu,” says Petri Liukka, the Joensuu factory manager.
Most of Finland’s dairy farms are located in the area stretching from Ostrobothnia to Eastern Finland. The Joensuu factory receives milk from 800 dairy farms, mainly located in North Karelia, and produces a third of all Valio cheeses.
The factory’s annual production volume is about 25 million kilograms of cheese blocks, consumer-packaged cheeses, fresh cheeses, and milk powders. The main products of the Joensuu factory are Valio Polar cheeses, Valio Salaneuvos cheeses and Valio Viola fresh cheeses. In the future, Joensuu will also produce processed cheeses such as Valio Koskenlaskija processed cheese, as well as Valio Aamupala, Valio Olympia and Valio Kippari cheese slices and grated cheeses. Approximately 20% of the Joensuu factory’s production is exported.
