Glanbia Cheese Plant Boasts Big Numbers

Idaho is perhaps best known for potatoes, but if Ireland's Glanbia Plc has anything to say about it, the state will become notorious for cheese.

The company announced Thursday it had officially opened in Gooding, Idaho, what it says is one of the world's biggest cheese production plants.

The already existing facility received a $33 million makeover and now boasts a 180 million pound annual output of American cheese plus more than 88 million pounds of specialized dairy ingredients. Total plant area is 170,000-sqft with 223 employees manning the facility, processing 4.6 million pounds of milk daily.

The upgrade is the latest in several expansions from the plant's initial capacity of 32,000 metric tons of cheese in 1991.

"It ranks as one of the top facilities of its kind both in the USA and globally—cheese output from the single plant equates to the entire hard cheese production in the Republic of Ireland," Glanbia leaders said.

The new plant boosts by 30% the company's annual U.S. cheese production to hit roughly 264 million lbs. and increases its ingredients output by 20% to make the roughly 119 million pound mark.

"Glanbia's development is being focused on the international cheese and nutrition sectors and our USA business is an important platform for future growth," Glanbia Chairman John Duggan said at the opening. "Today, Glanbia ranks among the world's leading cheese companies with particular strengths in ingredient cheeses in the USA and the European Union.

"We have achieved important scale of operations in Idaho, a strong technical base and good customer relationships," Duggan said. "The USA business is also the main driver of our nutrition strategy where the market for nutritional products is robust."

Glanbia has gotten sales commitments for the Gooding site's entire additional output, company leaders said.

Edited by Gerry Clark