Up to 4,000 people toured the expanded Carbery Group dairy facility in Co. Cork as part of an ‘open week’ which concluded on Friday (October 7).
At a cost of €78 million, the extension to the plant in Ballineen took two years to construct and was completed in 2020.
The cheese diversification project, which took place while the existing plant was fully operational, is the single biggest capital investment undertaken by Carbery since its foundation in the 1960s.
The company, which posted revenues of €535.7 million in 2021, is owned by 1,200 milk suppliers of the four west Cork co-ops: Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird.
The expansion plan sought to cater for increased milk volumes, reduce dependency on the UK market and diversify product range and target markets.
“When we knew we had to expand in terms of our growing milk pool, we assessed a number of different options beyond cheese as well,” Jason Hawkins, Carbery Group chief executive, told Agriland during the tour of the Cork plant.
“But really at our core, we’re cheesemakers here at Carbery and we’re also experts in whey processing.”
As the cheddar market was already well-established, the processor eyed an opportunity to cater for the growing mozzarella market, particularly in Asia.
Arising from this, it was decided to add a third cheese facility to the Ballineen plant focused on mozzarella production.
As a result of the expansion, involving around 400 contractors, the holding capacity for milk at the plant increased by 1.2 million litres through the installation of five new silos.
In 2021, Carbery processed a record 612 million litres of milk in Ballineen where cheese is produced all year round.
The bespoke technology needed for the new plant was designed by Carbery in collaboration with companies across the world.
These included cheese vats from the United States and a cheddaring machine from New Zealand, while the mozzarella equipment was imported from Italy.
The new mozzarella facility can make up to 5t of cheese every hour, which is enough for 50,000 pizzas.
Over 10,000t of mozzarella was produced in the Cork plant last year.
The cheese is chilled for the domestic, UK and German markets and super-chilled to -2° for customers in Japan.
The mozzarella is frozen for markets in southeast Asia and Africa giving it a two-year shelf life.
Blocks of cheese up to 20kg are manufactured on two other production lines which run simultaneously to the mozzarella plant.
Combined, these lines can produce up to 14t of cheese per hour including Carbery’s flagship brand, Dubliner.
Through research and development over the past decade, Carbery has developed a unique starter culture for its cheese production.
During peak production months, 400-450t of cheese is loaded onto trucks daily from five on-site loading bays.
Carbery has six laboratories, five of which are on site in Ballineen, including milk testing, microbiology, chemistry and pathogen testing.
Around 90 internal audits are carried out in the plant annually to ensure that standards are maintained. To date in 2022, there has also been 22 external regulatory and customer audits.
15 staff work on the research and development team across a range of products from nutritional ingredients to cheese.
Carbery hired a chef to develop recipes and host cookery demonstrations in an on-site kitchen.
The west Cork site also produces infant, sport and clinical nutrition products, while the company’s subsidary, Synergy, manufactures flavours, natural extracts and essences.
Jason Hawkins said that the company has already seen a recovery in the food service sector from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There’s a greater and greater demand particularly for an Irish grass-based mozzarella source.”
Despite adding a third cheese production line to its Ballineen facility, Carbery, which has a firm focus on sustainability, has not increased its carbon emissions.
The plant’s net water usage has also remained unchanged due to conservation measures.
The main energy source at the processor’s expanded facility is an on-site combined heat and power (CHP) plant which produces 78% of the plant’s electrical requirements. The remainder of the electricity is sourced from the national grid.
There are two anaerobic digestors (AD) units at the plant producing biogas for use in on-site boilers.
“It’s really important to us to share a significant investment of €78 million. Obviously, during Covid-19 we didn’t have an opportunity to show people around and show them what we have done.
“It’s been a fabulous week we’ve had 3,500-4,000 people come through; a combination of our supplier shareholders and their families, our own employees and their families and members of the community,” Hawkins said.