Glanbia Ingredients Ireland is seeking planning permission for a €35 million expansion for its Wexford cheese plant.
This expansion will double the plant's milk processing capacity, and will create up to 70 jobs and secure the positions of the 48 already employed at the plant. It is also expected to deliver an additional whey stream for the sports nutrition sector, which is one of Glanbia's main market sectors.
GII is looking to complete work on the plant in early 2017. The company is a joint initiative between Glanbia and Glanbia Co-operative Society (40:60) and is seeking permission to commence work on the project towards the end of the year.
GII chief executive, Jim Bergin said, "The proposed investment is a tremendous vote of confidence in the staff at our Wexford plant, which produced record volumes of cheese in 2015. This investment will also enable further growth in our highly popular Wexford Cheese brand, which is being marketed in Ireland, the UK, the USA and, most recently, the Middle East".
Henry Corbally, chairman of GII said, "This latest investment is part of Glanbia’s commitment to meet the growth ambitions of our milk suppliers. In the past three years, GII has invested €235m at the company’s milk processing plants at Virginia (Co Cavan), Ballyragget and Belview (Co Kilkenny)".
Milk supply from GII’s farmers has risen 22 per cent since milk quotas were abolished 10 months ago. Glanbia purchased Wexford creamery in 2014.
© 2016 - Checkout Magazine by David Coen
