FDBusiness.com

Royal A-ware, a leading global cheese and dairy producer in The Netherlands, and Glanbia Ireland, Ireland’s largest dairy processor, plan to enter a strategic partnership that proposes to build a new continental cheese manufacturing facility in Belview, County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is proposed that a total of €140 million will be invested in this best-in-class facility. The new facility is scheduled for commissioning in 2022 and will produce continental cheeses in various formats.

Once fully commissioned, the new facility will have a production capacity of 450 million litres of milk per annum.  Approximately 80 full time jobs will be created at the facility. It is expected that a further 100 temporary jobs will be created during the construction phase.

Milk used in the production process on site will be sourced from local suppliers and the cheese will be marketed and sold to global customers.

Jan Anker (pictured left), chief executive of Royal A-Ware Group, says: “With this announcement, Royal A-ware is taking another step towards achieving its goals of working with strategic partners to build innovative and sustainable agri-food chains and offering its customers an enhanced product portfolio.  It also gives our company access to additional volumes of high-quality cheese through a local supply chain.”

Jim Bergin (pictured right), chief executive of Glanbia Ireland, comments: “We are delighted to partner with Royal A-ware, a leading global producer of continental cheeses, to build a world-class cheese plant in the south-east of Ireland. This new partnership will create a new route to market for Glanbia Ireland suppliers’ milk and diversify our portfolio of consumer dairy products and ingredients. Since 2014 we have invested €343 million to facilitate a 42% increase in milk production by Glanbia farmers. This proposed new investment is now required to diversify our product mix and to ensure that our suppliers have the opportunity to fulfill their growth ambitions.”

The proposed new facility will be located at a greenfield site near to Glanbia Ireland’s infant nutrition plant at Belview, County Kilkenny. First opened in 2015, the Glanbia infant nutrition plant at Belview is a flagship manufacturing site for Glanbia Ireland and is currently the subject of a €130 million investment to install a third drier and expand production capacity.