Tipperary food: Glanbia and Dutch firm to build cheese making facility

Royal A-ware, a leading global cheese and dairy producer in The Netherlands, and Glanbia Ireland, Ireland’s largest dairy processor, have announced plans to enter a strategic partnership to build a new continental cheese manufacturing facility in Belview, County Kilkenny.

It is proposed that a total of €140m 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.

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys said that the announcement was welcome news for the south east.

"Growing jobs at a regional level is a key focus for government and with the looming challenge of Brexit, supporting economic growth in our regions through such actions as product diversification, thereby helping to create sustainable and quality jobs, is a huge priority for Government," she said.

Minister Humphreys congratulated Glanbia Ireland for their continued commitment to supporting the growth and development of their suppliers, further leveraging Ireland’s positive international reputation in the dairy sector.”

Michael Creed, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine said: “The agri-food sector is Ireland’s largest indigenous industry supporting over 174,000 jobs across rural Ireland, from farms to food processing. Investments like this cheese manufacturing facility in Belview are a critical response to the challenges posed by Brexit, in terms of developing new products and new markets.”

Jan Anker, chief executive of Royal A-Ware Group, said that they were proud to announce the partnership.

He said that Royal A-ware was 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," said Mr Anker.

Jim Bergin, chief executive of Glanbia Ireland, said that they were 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 €343m 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 fulfil their growth ambitions," he said.

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 the subject of a €130m investment to install a third drier and expand production capacity.