Glanbia & joint venture partners announce further $90m expansion at Southwest Cheese

4/14/09

14 April 2009 - Glanbia plc (‘Glanbia’), the international cheese and nutritional ingredients Group,  and its US joint venture partner, the Greater Southwest Agency,  today announces a further $90m  expansion of  its  New Mexico,  cheese and whey  business,  Southwest Cheese.   The expansion project, which will increase capacity at the plant by 33%, will be funded largely from the business.

 

Commissioning of the expansion is expected in 2010.  Once fully commissioned, the expansion will see annual capacity at the site boosted to just over 4 billion lbs of milk and 400 million lbs of cheese and 26 million lbs of high value added whey proteins.

 

Commenting on the announcement, John Moloney, Group Managing Director, Glanbia plc, said,

 

“From commissioning of the facility in October 2006 to today, this business has grown significantly to where it is now operating at full capacity – processing over 2.7 billion lbs of milk annually, producing over 300 million lbs of cheese and 20 million lbs of advanced whey food ingredients.  Southwest Cheese is operationally excellent and has performed strongly – which is a great tribute to our joint venture partner, the people, plant and processes.  Against this background and bearing in mind that markets for American-style cheddar cheese and high protein whey products are growing, combined with consistently strong milk supply in the region, we felt there was a strong rationale for expansion.  Scale production is a key platform in our growth strategy and Glanbia is very pleased with the progress of Southwest Cheese. We are confident that it will continue to grow and build on its successful track record.”

 

Mike McCloskey, Chairman of Southwest Cheese, added, “The success of Southwest Cheese is a reflection of the strong partnership that exists between the Agency and Glanbia. We are pleased to have joined forces with an operating partner of Glanbia’s calibre – which has such a strong reputation in the USA for developing and operating large scale, efficient facilities.   For our part, we are confident of an ongoing supply of milk from the region and believe that the expansion is essential to grow the business further for suppliers and for the partnership.”

 

John Moloney

Group Managing Director

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