In a move to support the growth of its Kerrygold butter brand, Ornua has invested €40m ($42.2m) in a dairy plant in Ireland. The cooperative’s Kerrygold Park facility, located in the town of Mitchelstown, County Cork, has undergone development over the past year and has recently been completed. The investment aims to drive Kerrygold’s sales to €2bn globally. With the expansion, production of butter has increased from 53,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes annually, allowing for one million packs per day. This investment also supports the export of Kerrygold to the US, where it is the second-most popular dairy brand.
The investment has seen Ornua add a second butter churn and four new packaging lines to the Kerrygold Park factory, bringing the total to ten packaging lines. With this expansion, the factory, which supplies products to 60 markets, will also see its workforce grow by 30 to reach 180 employees. The Irish government’s Enterprise Ireland development scheme has provided an undisclosed amount of funding for the project.
In the past year, Ornua’s revenue increased by almost 37% to €3.4bn, signaling the continued success and growth of the cooperative. According to Aidan O’Driscoll, Ornua’s chairman, Kerrygold has been delivering the unique taste of Irish grass-fed dairy to the world for the past 60 years and is committed to further expanding its global status while benefiting the Irish dairy sector.
Jenny Melia, executive director at Enterprise Ireland, expressed the organization’s support for Ornua’s growth and expansion efforts. Enterprise Ireland aims to assist companies in increasing their level of innovation, competitiveness, and global footprint to drive export growth in Ireland’s food and beverage industry.
