Carrick-on-Suir factory's new owner in talks to secure manufacturing tenant for the plant

The new owner of the former Corman Miloko factory near Carrick-on-Suir is in the final stages of securing a new manufacturing operation for the former dairy processing plant.

Limerck-based United Metal Recycling (UMR) Group has purchased the factory located along the N24 at Deerpark, Carrick-on-Suir, and is very hopeful of announcing a new manufacturing client for the site early next year.

Tony Donlon, one of the joint owners of UMR, told The Nationalist the company paid “north of €2m” for the property and is currently “decommissioning” the factory, a process that began on Monday, November 20. This involves removal of old plant and other materials in the factory for recycling.

Mr Donlon said they have been in talks with two potential clients for the Corman Miloko plant and are in the final stages of forging a deal with one of them, a large Waterford based company.

A further site visit and audit of the factory site has to be carried out by this firm.

He said they hope to be in a position to finalise the contract to lease the factory to this potential client in the first quarter of next year.

If the deal goes through, he estimated between 30 and 35 jobs will be created in the new manufacturing operation at the factory.

Mr Donlon said he was not in a position to divulge at this stage the type of product the potential client will manufacture at the facility.

The purchase of the Corman Miloko plant and the new owner’s intention to lease it to a manufacturing tenant has been welcomed by Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr Kieran Bourke.

“I am delighted to hear that the former Corman Miloko factory has been bought and I cautiously welcome the news that talks are taking place to secure a new manufacturing client for the facility.

“ I hope a contract is signed and that Carrick-on-Suir will get extra jobs,” the Fianna Fáil councillor added.

Corman Miloko, a joint venture between Tirlán and Belgian company Corman, was a dairy spreads and butterfats processing plant that closed on June 30 with the loss of 31 jobs.

The closure brought to an end more than 70 years of dairy processing at the factory, which opened in 1949 as a co-operative society making chocolate crumb. In the intervening decades, the manufacture of chocolate crumb was replaced by Casein processing and producing Mozzarella type cheese for pizzas  in the  UK market.

It became Corman Miloko Ireland Ltd in 2006 and processed and packed dairy spreads for the European markets and Kerrygold USA as well as technical butter for croissants.

Following its closure at the end of June, the facility that comprises a factory building, two storey office block, laboratory, rear storage warehouse and on-site waste water treatment plant on a nine-hectare site, was put up for sale.

It’s now the latest manufacturing factory to be added to United Metals Recycling Group’s growing property portfolio.

The company’s core business is metal recycling, industrial demolition and waste management.

According to UMR Group’s website, the company has diversified over the past decade into property investment, particularly in commercial and industrial properties with a focus on securing long term tenants for them.

Several of these properties are located in south Tipperary including the former Sram factory building in Carrick-on-Suir, which is now leased out for storage and the former Ranbaxy pharmaceutical plant in Cashel.

Mr Donlon said UMR is currently working to secure a new tenant for the Ranbaxy factory.

A very different property acquisition by the UMR group is the historic Georgian Knocklofty House and estate near Clonmel. The company purchased the historic property that has fallen into significant disrepair at auction in July.