Business

Irish co-operative Dairygold launches new £75m nutritionals campus

The new Dairygold £75 million nutritionals campus in Mallow, Co Cork
The new Dairygold £75 million nutritionals campus in Mallow, Co Cork The new Dairygold £75 million nutritionals campus in Mallow, Co Cork

IRISH co-operative Dairygold has opened a new £75 million nutritionals campus at its headquarters in Co Cork.

The dairy giant has made the major investment at its Mallow facility and the new milk processing facility will make a full range of nutritional dairy powers in volumes of up to 1,750 tonnes per week.

Dairygold is Ireland's largest farmer-owned co-op, with over 7,000 shareholders, of which almost 3,000 are active milk suppliers from the counties Cork, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.

The firm employs over 1,200 people across Munster as well as in the UK, Germany, Spain and Beijing.

Last year the group processed 1.3 billion litres of milk.

The latest investment by Dairygold will go towards enhancing the firm's infant formula product and it is hoped will increase exports opportunities to lucrative markets like China. Ireland currently produces 10 per cent of the entire global exports of infant milk formula.

The overall capital investment programme will create over 115 new jobs directly within the Dairygold group.

Speaking at the opening of the new facility in Mallow An Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald said it was a "great day for Dairygold, its management and staff, for its farmers - and for the region".

"The opening of this nutritionals campus, following an €86 million investment programme supported by my Department through Enterprise Ireland, will assist with the delivery of hundreds of jobs for the region over the coming years," she said.

"Dairygold’s commitment to its growth and expansion represents the vigour and ambition of Irish companies to perform and compete on a global stage.

It is particularly heartening when a business has been grown out of one of the basic fabrics of Irish life – our attachment to agriculture and farming – to become a provider of high value products in foreign markets."

"The dairy sector is worth over €4 billion to the Irish economy and three-quarters of this is exported. By 2025, it is expected that dairy output will have increased by a further €1 billion, all of which will have to be exported. This investment today, founded on innovation and export potential, will be a major stepping stone to delivering on that opportunity," she added.