Dairygold lifts capacity with €117m investment in Cork

Dairygold’s €117m investment in its Mallow and Mitchelstown sites will give the north Cork co-op the processing capacity it needs for next year’s abolition of EU milk quota restrictions, said the company’s chief executive, Jim Woulfe.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny laid the foundation stone as Dairygold broke ground on the €83.5m ‘regeneration’ of its milk plant at Mallow, which will create 115 new full-time jobs in operations as well as 400 temporary construction jobs. He also performed the official opening of Dairygold’s newly- completed €33.5m upgrade of its Castlefarm dairy plant in Mitchelstown.

Dairygold’s enlarged facilities will produce dairy ingredient milk powders of infant milk formula standards. It is understood that industry customers are already in place to take on the co-op’s expanded output. Its 3,000 suppliers expect their milk output to grow by 60% by 2020.