Glanbia sets itself higher targets as it focuses on US market opportunities

FOOD group Glanbia is setting itself a new course.

The group is setting itself higher targets in the US where it is now the biggest producer of cheddar cheese from its strong Idaho base.

For the record, Glanbia processes something like 700,000 gallons of milk per day at its Idaho operations. From that it makes masses of cheddar cheese of the natural variety to meet a growing consumer demand.

More critically perhaps is the whey left over from cheese production. From it the group has started to extract “protein isolate”, a major ingredient in the production of a variety of more nutritional and healthy snacks and drinks.

In that context Glanbia has become a joint venture partner in the Nash’s soft drinks group in Munster and will use it as distributor to bring new drinks to the market along with the group’s own strong soft drinks brands that have served the company well for years, especially in the Munster region.

Like other food companies, chief executive John Moloney is fully aware of the potential the emerging market for healthy food and drink is providing. The business is still at the early stages with very modest sales and earnings to date.

That belies the huge potential lying untapped in the sector which will evolve as consumers become healthier and more nutrition conscious.

Where this will lead to remains to be seen. Strategic acquisitions as big as €100m will be required to drive that end of the business and news on this is expected soon.

Other factors will help the outlook going forward.

Pig processing by the group accounts for 50% of the total kill in the Irish market, while Dairygold’s withdrawal will have helped as will its own investments at its two plants Roscrea and Edenderry.