Industry & Business

The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has opened a new cheese manufacturing facility at its Thiel Cheese & Ingredients (Thiel) operation in Wisconsin, marking the completion of an $80 million expansion programme in its US food ingredients business.

The new $12 million facility boasts some of the most advanced dairy processing equipment in the US dairy sector and includes a state-of-the-art Innovation Centre that will provide functional cheese solutions to IDB’s US food ingredient and food service customers. The new facility will increase IDB’s US food ingredient production capacity by 40%.

The US expansion programme provides IDB with greater scale in the value-added cheese ingredients sector and is in-line with its strategy to invest in high growth and profitable dairy businesses. The business provides an important route to market for Irish casein and through its extensive US customer base, is opening up further opportunities for Irish dairy products. This, aligned with the overall success of the US operations, will help ensure that IDB continues to deliver a strong return to its members and to Irish dairy farmers.

Kevin Lane, chief executive of IDB, comments: “The completion of a very significant investment programme by IDB into the US food ingredients market is in-line with our growth strategy to invest in high growth dairy businesses that deliver strong returns to our members. The focus of this investment is on innovation as much as production with our new facility enhancing our ability to create innovative food solutions that meet the evolving needs of our US customer base and their brands. These innovations and the deep knowledge base at Thiel will be shared across all of our operations, supporting our group’s NPD growth strategy.”