9 April 2009 - Glanbia plc, the international cheese and nutritional ingredients Group, and its US joint venture partner, the Greater Southwest Agency, today announces a further $90m expansion of its New Mexico, cheese and whey business, Southwest Cheese. The expansion project, which will increase capacity at the plant by 33%, will be funded largely from the business.
Commissioning of the expansion is expected in 2010. Once fully commissioned, the expansion will see capacity at the site boosted to over 1.75 billion litres of milk and 181,000 tonnes of cheese and 12,000 tonnes of high value added whey proteins.
Commenting on the announcement, John Moloney, Group Managing Director, Glanbia plc, said,
"From commissioning of the facility in October 2006 to today, this business has grown significantly to where it is now operating at full capacity - processing over 1.3 billion litres of milk annually, producing 136,000 tonnes of cheese and 9,000 tonnes of advanced whey food ingredients. Southwest Cheese is operationally excellent and has performed strongly - which is a great tribute to our joint venture partner, the people, plant and processes. Against this background and bearing in mind that markets for American-style cheddar cheese and high protein whey product are growing, combined with consistently strong milk supply in the region, we felt there was a strong rationale for expansion. Scale production is a key platform in our growth strategy and Glanbia is very pleased with the progress of Southwest Cheese. We are confident that it will continue to grow and build on its successful track record."
Mike McCloskey, Chairman of Southwest Cheese, added, "The success of Southwest Cheese is a reflection of the strong partnership that exists between the Agency and Glanbia. We are pleased to have joined forces with an operating partner of Glanbia's calibre - which has such a strong reputation in the USA for developing and operating large scale, efficient facilities. For our part we are confident of an ongoing supply of milk from the region and believe that the expansion is essential to grow the business further for suppliers and for the partnership."