IDB to double production at new £11M plant
The Adams Food Ingredients (AFI) manufacturing centre is a new 6,039m2 and will employ 50 staff on the site in Leek, Staffordshire.
The plant will include an innovation centre as well as a new powder blending production facility. It replace AFI’s old plant, also in Leek.
Investment programme
The facility will produce customised dairy ingredient blends for food manufacturers in Britain and export markets. The project is part of a five-year £60M capital investment programme by the IDB, as the firm seeks to consolidate its position in the market.
The firm said that it will also allow “greater flexibility” to produce a range of packaging formats to meet specific customer needs.
Kevin Lane, chief executive of the IDB, told Food Manufacture.co.uk: “This investment provides the Irish dairy industry with further market opportunities to meet the growing demand from food manufacturers for high quality dairy ingredients. Our purpose-built innovation centre allows us to work closely with manufacturers in developing specific formulations.”
IDB chairman, Vincent Buckley said that he believed the new facility would also “add value” to Irish dairy exports in the future and will “allow us to lead the way in best-in-class customised ingredients solutions”.
Exports
Speaking at the official opening of the site, Shane McEntee, minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, confirmed that exports of dairy products to the UK in 2010 were valued at almost €800M.
He said: “Establishing more efficient routes to this market will be a critical requirement if we are to maximise the potential of the sector. I am delighted to see that IDB is playing its part in this effort, and I congratulate all those involved in bringing this ambitious project to fruition.”
Adams Food Ingredients is a subsidiary of the Irish Dairy Board, which also includes the consumer foods firm Adams Foods.
The new manufacturing centre is located on a site adjacent to Adams Foods, with the entire IDB complex covering a total of six hectares.
