Malting giant Boortmalt has opted to extend its malting capacity in Athy, Co. Kildare, by 30,000t to continue providing its Irish brewing and distilling customers with a 100% Irish supply chain – from seed to malting barley – the company has announced.

The move is designed to “build further the relationships between Boortmalt Ireland and Irish growers”, the firm has said.

A local project team has been entrusted with execution of the expansion project; this team is led by maltings manager Patrick Kennedy and plant performance manager Noel Gaffney – along with the company McElroy Associates.

The planning process is currently underway, with a completion date set for June 2018.

Commercial negotiations are currently ongoing and the successful principal contractor is due to be appointed before the end of the year, the firm has said. New steeping, germination and kilning vessels – along with additional malt outloading facilities – are consequentially expected to be built and operational by June 2019.

Boortmalt

Boortmalt Athy site

Yvan Schaepman, Boortmalt Group CEO, commented on the move, stating: “With our Irish grower partners we have – since 2010 – further developed the Boortmalt local malting barley supply chain for the exclusive use of our Irish customers.

The Boortmalt Irish malting barley supply chain is sustainable (Origin Green and SAI silver certified) and can be further expanded now that we decided to add 30,000t of malting capacity in Athy to service the growing brewing and distilling markets in Ireland.

After its ongoing investments in Ethiopia, this new malting plant extension in Ireland is fully in line with Boortmalt’s strategy to support its customers worldwide by developing local malt production, the company claims.