Carbery group opens manufacturing and technology centre in Brazil

West Cork-based food group Carbery has opened a manufacturing and technology centre for the group’s taste and flavour division Synergy Flavours in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

The facility includes flavour creation and applications laboratories and flavour manufacturing capability to support the expansion of Synergy Aromas, the company’s Brazil-based business.

This facility will further grow Carbery Group’s international ingredients business and will strengthen Synergy’s supply chain in Brazil and Latin America.

Carbery group chief executive Dan MacSweeney said: “Our new facility in Brazil is part of the continued international expansion of our ingredients business and a further commitment to the Brazilian market. Synergy, our taste and flavour business, has been operating in Brazil since 2007 and is building a reputation for supplying high quality flavour ingredients to many of the major food and beverage companies operating in this rapidly growing market, so there was a requirement to expand our manufacturing and customer technical support.”

The new Synergy Flavours facility was formally opened yesterday by trade minister Joe Costello, during Enterprise Ireland’s trade mission to the country.

Mr Costello said Carbery’s expansion will further benefit trading links between Ireland and Brazil. “Trade and economic co-operation between Ireland and Brazil has grown dramatically in recent years and we are delighted that West Cork based Carbery Group is developing this relationship further as it expands it’s international business.”

Carbery is an international food ingredients, flavours and cheese manufacturer headquartered in West Cork, Ireland, and has production, R&D, service and marketing capabilities in Europe, North America, Brazil and Thailand.

Carbery Group is owned by the four dairy co-ops in West Cork, and it employs approximately 530 people. It had a turnover of €256.5m in 2011, when pre-tax profits rose by 27.8% to €8.7m.

Carbery’s global group members include Carbery’s Ingredients, which incorporates its flavour business, Synergy, as well as its dairy ingredients business. Synergy recently acquired two new flavour businesses in the US.

The group also includes emulsion technology company Sethness Greenleaf in Chicago. Its flagship cheese brand, Dubliner, continues to grow, particularly in the US market.