Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GIIL) has broken ground on a EUR150m dairy processing facility at Belview Port, Kilkenny, Ireland.
The ground breaking ceremony was attended by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, Glanbia chairman Liam Herlihy, group managing director John Moloney, and Glanbia Ingredients Ireland chief executive Jim Bergin, reported the Irish Times.
The 23,500m² facility will process more than 700 million litres of milk and produce 100,000t of dairy powders. It is expected to create more than 1,600 jobs by 2018 and about 450 construction jobs.
The facility is scheduled to go onstream in mid-2015, with most of the production from the facility focused on export markets. It will supply a range of nutritional powders to an increasing number of regions including the Middle East, Africa, Central America and Asia.
The project will contribute €400m per annum to the local economies of 16 surrounding counties, and demonstrates a long-term commitment to farm families and the rural economy, according to GIIL.
GIIL is a joint venture between Irish nutritional solutions and cheese firm Glanbia and its largest shareholder, Glanbia Co-op Society. Currently, GIIL processes 1.6 billion litres of milk - 30% of Ireland's milk pool - into a wide range of dairy ingredients for export to more than 50 countries worldwide.
