Carbery Group has announced the completion of the expansion at its headquarters in Ballineen, West Cork and the beginning of production of new cheese varieties (mozzarella and grilling cheese).
Supported by a €78 million investment in a new facility at its headquarters in Co Cork, the Dubliner Cheese owner said that the new range will be sold in existing and new markets with a particular focus on growing markets in Asia.
CEO of Carbery Group Jason Hawkins said of the expansion, “Our cheese diversification strategy has been in the works now for a number of years, so it’s great to see all our planning and efforts come to fruition."
"It’s a significant investment for us, in financial terms, but also in terms of our strategy, our people and market research," he added.
State Of The Art Facility
The expansion in Ballineen is supported by a new state of the art facility, with specialist equipment from New Zealand, Italy, UK, Denmark and Minnesota in the US.
The Group will initially be focusing exports on customers in Asia, including China and Japan, and mainland Europe, the company said.
John Holland, chief operating officer of the group, who oversaw the expansion project at Ballineen, said: "This step forward will only enhance our capabilities into the future. We have been implementing a growth strategy for a number of years now to diversify our outputs, and therefore expand our customer base.
"We believe that our heritage and expertise in dairy, combined with our dedicated people, talented team of researchers, food scientists and cheese technologists enables us to develop products that will excite our existing and new customers,” he added.
Best known for producing Dubliner Cheese and Carbery Cracker for the Irish domestic market as well as cheese for export under the Ornua brands, Carbery Group currently produces 55,000 tonnes of cheese annually, or 25% of all cheese made in Ireland.
This is set to increase to 64,000 tonnes with the new expansion now in place, the company added.
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