Irish global food group thrives in New Mexico

SETTING up one of the world’s largest cheese plants in the uplands of New Mexico, where the Comanches once hunted the buffalo, was a daunting challenge.

It was assigned to Maurice Keane, a native of Foxhall, Ardmore, Co Waterford, who was tasked by Glanbia plc to oversee the planning, building, commissioning and start up of the plant on caramel dirt land.

Southwest Cheese is a joint venture between the global food group and the Greater Southwest Agency in Clovis, a city with a population of over 32,000 people in rural New Mexico, some nine miles from the Texas border.

The job was completed on time and within budget, and was officially opened last week by New Mexico Governor Bob Richardson and others including the Irish Ambassador to the United States Noel Fahey.

It was a joyful day in the blazing sunshine for SWC chief executive Maurice Keane and his team, who are regarded as miracle workers in Clovis, which secured the plant despite strong competition from nearby Texas.

Mr Keane, who was reared on a dairy farm, has Bachelor of Agricultural Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from University College, Dublin, as well as qualifications in marketing and leadership development.

He had spent 11 years with Glanbia Foods plc before group managing director John Moloney asked him to set up the €150 million) plant in Clovis.

The enormity of the assignment is shown in the project’s vital statistics.

It has 60 miles of stainless steel piping above ground, 742 miles of electrical cable above and below the surface, and enough power to light 1.5 million bulbs for 24 hours.

Ground was broken for the 340,000 square foot plant on a 54 acre site, part of a 2,250 acre land bank, in February, 2004, with the first tankers delivering milk in October of 2005.

At full capacity, Southwest Cheese will process 2.5 billion pounds of milk and 2.3 billion pounds of high value-added whey per annum into American style cheeses and valuable proteins for the global nutritional market.

It also has its own on site rail link and recovers over 500,000 gallons of water from milk every day, treats it and recycles it for irrigation.

Southwest Cheese Plant employs 225 people, most of them from the locality, and pumps an estimated 1.2 billion dollars a year into the local economy through milk purchase, labour, energy and other goods and services.

Mr Keane, a former President of the Irish Grassland and Animal Production Association, said setting up the project was an interesting challenge. It is not often that a person gets an opportunity to start a plant from zero and take it to completion. “We are proud that our world scale, state of the art facility was completed on time and to budget. SWC has built a strong team capable of delivering world class performance in an ever changing market place,” he said.

Mr Keane said Clovis was an ideal choice of location for the plant. New Mexico has production advantages that includes good climate, ready supply of feed and great neighbours.

Moving to Clovis where the sun shines an average of 355 days a year was also an exciting if challenging adventure for the Glanbia personnel and their families. But they settled well in the friendly and hospitable local communities, some 4,295 feet above sea level, Rural people in these parts still wear Stetson hats and cowboy boots, and some of them live and work against the backdrop of a US Air Force base that’s home to F-16 fighter squadrons and is set to become the new location for a special operations wing.

Glanbia’s team in Clovis included Alan McEntee, from Trim, Co Meath, a brother of former footballer, Gerry McEntee and of Dáil Deputy Shane McEntee.

Alan was the chief financial officer for the project and is now returning to Ireland. He has been succeeded in Clovis by Frank Stephenson, a native of Tralee, Co Kerry.

David Ellard, Abbeyside, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, a native of Mitchelstown, Co Cork, was the chief project engineer, while another Cork man Mossie Murphy, Dromahane, is the whey plant manager.

Dairy science graduate Niamh Kelly, Cooraclare, Co Clare, who has just returned to Ireland from Clovis, enjoyed her time in New Mexico. “The people are very nice and it was a great experience,” she said.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democratic Party US presidential candidate hopeful in 2008, whose wife has Irish roots in the Flavin clan, later returned the compliment.

Clovis is a conservative community, he said, but having so many colourful Irish people here is great. Their children are even playing football — American style.