Ornua, the country’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products, has opened a new mozzarella cheese factory in Ávila, Spain.

The factory is the result of a €30m investment and has been built on the Ornua cheese manufacturing site that was destroyed by fire in 2017. Ornua purchased the business in 2014 from Telepizza, one of Europe’s largest pizza producers, and has a long-term contract to supply Telepizza with cheese.

The factory will have an initial capacity to process 35,000t of mozzarella and other pizza cheese with plans to double this in the future. This factory which employs 120 people will use butter, casein and cagliata (a type of industrial cheese that can be made on a cheddar cheese plant) from Irish processors. Around half of the dairy ingredients will come from Ireland.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Ornua CEO John Jordan said this investment will diversify Ornua’s business. He said it will help mitigate risk from a hard Brexit and also help diversify away from cheddar. The cheese will be primarily for the Spanish and Portuguese pizza market but will also export to South America through its customers. “It offers a market for dairy products outside of cheddar and the UK and this is especially important given the increase in milk since the lifting of quotas,” said Jordan.

He says there is a big opportunity in quick-service restaurants chains such as Telepizza and the market is growing rapidly. He said cheese solutions is already a core strength of Ornua and this Spanish business is profitable and will return profits to Ornua that will benefit Irish farmers. He added that this major investment will play a key role in enhancing Ornua’s cheese ingredients capacity and capabilities.

Separately, Glanbia Cheese, the joint venture between Glanbia plc and Leprino Foods, is investing €130m in a 45,000t capacity mozzarella factory in Portlaoise.