Kerrygold owner Ornua, has today opened a €30 million cheese production facility in Ávila, Spain.
The 35,000-tonne mozzarella and pizza cheese facility, with plans to increase to 70,000-tonne, greatly enhances Ornua’s pizza cheese making capacity and capability, the group said.
John Jordan, Ornua CEO said that the new facility is fully in line with Ornua’s growth strategy of investing in world-class strategic production facilities to secure long term returns for Irish dairy farmers.
"It will reinforce our position as a leading, large scale supplier of high-quality dairy ingredients to many leading Spanish, European and global food manufacturing and food service customers." He added.
By No Stretch
Currently, Ornua supplies enough cheese for over 100 million pizzas each year, including blends for both European and global pizza chains.
The global pizza market is believed to be worth in the region of $130 billion, the company highlighted.
Ireland’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products said that its technology at the new Spanish site provides a 'wide selection of mozzarella and mozzarella-based cheese blends which deliver great flavour, an excellent melted texture, superb coverage and stretch and an outstanding cooked appearance'.
It also features innovative Individual quick-freezing capability, an in-line cooling system and the latest technology to produce pizza cheese ropes for the growing ‘stuffed crust’ sector of the market.
Joining Forces
The reopening of the Ávila facility also marked the creation of Ornua Ingredients Europe, which brings Ornua’s Spanish and UK Ingredients businesses together.
Led by newly appointed Managing Director Joan Bombardo, Ornua Ingredients Europe incorporates Ávila and Ornua’s UK Ingredients businesses, giving it a turnover in excess of €300 million; four well-invested processing and NPD facilities and 600 experienced and committed staff.
"Our new Avila R&D Centre of Excellence becomes the 10th innovation centre in our international network, which will ensure that Ornua has the capability to support our customers at the forefront of the rapidly changing dairy ingredients market,” Jordan said.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
