‘Carbery Dairy’ goes live as new cheese plant opens
Jason Hawkins, CEO at Carbery Group with Chairman TJ Sullivan, CFO Colm Leen, COO John Holland and Cheddar Cheese Manager Conor O’Donovan with the new Carbery Dairy Mozzarella in Carbery’s new cheese facility in Ballineen, West Cork. Picture: Don MacMonagle.
Carbery Group has opened its new cheese plant at its headquarters in Ballineen, West Cork.
The expansion at the site will see the production of new cheese varieties including mozzarella and grilling cheese for the food service market in Europe and Asia.
Supported by a €78m investment at the plant, the new ranges of cheese will go to market under the brand name ‘Carbery Dairy’ which will be sold in existing and new markets as well as in the growing markets of Asia.
“Our cheese diversification strategy has been in the works now for a number of years, so it’s great to see all our planning and efforts come to fruition,” CEO Carbery Group, Jason Hawkins, said.
“It’s a significant investment for us, in financial terms, but also in terms of our strategy, our people and market research.
“Our teams across the business have been working extremely hard on this project and we are really looking forward to bringing our products to new markets and returning value on this investment to our farmer shareholders.
“This diversification will create new markets and value for our West Cork milk suppliers.”
Best known for producing Dubliner Cheese and Carbery Cracker for the Irish domestic market as well as cheese for export under the Ornua brands, Carbery Group currently produces 55,000t of cheese annually, or 25% of all cheese made in Ireland.
This will increase to 64,000t because of the latest expansion; the ‘Carbery Dairy’ brand is a new development for the Group which is producing new varieties of cheese for new markets, and also going to market in a new way.
“2020 has been a challenging year for us all, and Carbery has been no exception,” Mr Hawkins continued.
“I want to sincerely thank our employees and in particular everyone involved with the cheese expansion project, for continuing to push to deliver this project even through the extremely difficult circumstances that Covid-19 created during the year.
“I know that our success will be down to the commitment and dedication shown by all our employees.”
Meanwhile, Carbery Group was founded in 1965, and has spent over 50 years producing innovative, natural cheese solutions for international markets.
It is one of Ireland’s largest cheese producers, and is highly knowledgeable across the full spectrum of dairy production from farming and food science to research and food applications.
Milk from grass fed cows is supplied from 1,200 local family owned farms, where cows graze outdoors for up to 300 days a year.
