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.