The project is financed with own resouces and loans from Citadele Bank. The Latvian Government, through the Latvian State Development Finance Institution, will contribute €8.5 million to the setup.

Vilvi Group is one of the largest dairy processing groups in the Baltic States, with a historical export share of around 90%. The main export markets are European Union countries, and the firm also exports to Asia and other continents. The Group consists of Vilkyškių pieninė, Modest, Kelmės pieninė, Kelmės pienas, Pieno logistika and Baltic Dairy Board in Latvia.

According to preliminary unaudited data, the net profit of Vilvi Group was €14.6 million in 2023, or 15% more than in 2022, when the net profit was €12.7 million. The group’s EBITDA amounted to €21 million, an increase of 9.1% compared to the previous year.

The post Vilvi Group invests €50 million in Latvian cheese production appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The main reasons for this decision were explained to employees. First, the cost structures at the Heilbronn and Schefflenz sites are too high and not competitive. In addition, there is an enormous need for investment at the Heilbronn site, which further exacerbates the situation. Secondly, In the highly competitive dairy products market, which includes the yogurts and desserts produced at the Heilbronn site, significant volume growth and the resulting cost efficiencies are not expected in the medium to long term.

Cornelia Heiser, managing director responsible for the Landliebe business, says, “A comprehensive economic analysis has shown that, under these conditions, the two production sites have no prospect of returning from the deep red to a profitable business in the long term. We will integrate the product portfolio into other German locations of the group. We are aware that this decision will cause uncertainty among employees and will start talks with the works council as soon as possible with the aim of finding socially acceptable solutions.”

The post Müller to shut down two Landliebe sites in Germany appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The new facility is part of a longer-term capital investment programme to enhance and future proof Belton Farm’s speciality cheese business. In doing so, it will provide a strong base from which to grow further Belton Farm’s position as a leading supplier of branded classic and contemporary speciality British cheese to both UK and overseas customers.

The new cutting and packing facility will deliver increased efficiencies; provide greater operational flexibility and customer service levels; and over time lead to the adoption of innovative new pack sizes and formats for Belton Farm’s growing speciality cheese business.  It will also enable the business to leverage additional benefits from locating its specialist cheese making, maturing and cutting and packing operations all on one integrated site.

Commenting on the new cutting and packing facility, Justin Beckett, managing director of Belton Farm said: “The completion of our new cheese cutting and packing facility here at Belton Farm is an integral part of our plan to grow and develop our speciality cheese business. It comes in the year that we celebrate our cheese making centenary here at Belton Farm and demonstrates that we are not only proud of our heritage but also focused on our future.

“The new facility has been purpose built to enhance further our ability to provide the highest levels of product care and customer service; deliver greater efficiencies and operational flexibility; and allow us to offer innovative new pack sizes and formats.  In doing so, we are confident that will be able to meet the current and future needs of our growing number of speciality cheese customers both in the UK and increasingly overseas.”

The completion of the new facility means that the activity previously undertaken by Belton Packing & Logistics at its Wrexham site has been moved to Belton Farm. At the same time, the business is pleased to confirm that its existing staff have also moved to the new facility.

The new speciality cheese cutting and packing facility will complement Belton Farm’s existing relationships with cheese packing suppliers, who will continue to handle the majority of its cheese packing requirements.

For more information, visit: www.beltonfarm.co.uk.

The post Belton Farm invests in new UK facility appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Arla has also announced it will be looking to export more of its UK products overseas. Again, the British flag has a good reputation for export markets and let’s face it, if you can get a decent return for your products versus the domestic market, it makes sense to head west where the customers are.

A report by Kite Consulting also looks at this burgeoning export market, and suggests that it may be preferable to some domestic markets for some processors. The report, entitled Beyond Reset, builds on the analysis Kite conducted in October 2021, in its report Opportunities ahead, which outlined long-term global demand growth for dairy products. (www.kiteconsulting.com).

The report notes that this access to global markets is one that wasn’t an option in the past, and introduces a new dynamic in the sector, particularly for the liquid side of the business. It also suggests that using liquid milk as a loss leader for British retailers is not likely to remain viable.

John Allen, managing partner of Kite Consulting, adds: “If retailers want to secure long-term supply from partners that are committed to fulfilling their decarbonisation objectives, they need to provide a competitive market return. There has got to be a reset, prioritising fresh liquid milk and valuing it accordingly. UK farming become a potentially better place to be for the long term. Being out of the EU makes it a better place to export from, whether we wanted to leave or not. It created a situation and dynamic for the export business.”

• Suzanne Christiansen, editor, Dairy Industries International.
  Keep in touch via email: suzanne@bellpublishing.com
  Twitter: @dairyindustries or LinkedIn: Dairy Industries International magazine.

The post Liquid milk looks overseas appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

“The DA, through the National Dairy Authority (NDA), fully support and welcome this new initiative as this will help jumpstart catalytic investments in the Philippine dairy industry to contribute to food security, local milk production and processing leading to agri-industrial development,” said DA secretary William Dar who was present during the event with DTI secretary Ramon Lopez and Baladna independent board member Aidan Tynan, on 11 February, 2022 in Dubai, UAE.

In his presentation, the DA chief reported that the majority of the country’s annual dairy requirement is supplied by importers and processors, as the Philippines is a big importer of dairy products, particularly milk powder.

He added that, in 2020, the Philippine dairy industry was characterised by increasing local milk production and decreasing imports and exports of milk and dairy products. The local milk production reached 26.71 million litres, an increase of 9.5% from 24.38 million litres in 2019.

Baladna QPSC is into raising livestock and production of dairy products including milk, yogurt, cheese, labneh, cream, dessert, juices, as well as animal fertilisers.

The company is Qatar’s largest locally-owned food and dairy producer, supplying over 95% of the country’s fresh dairy products. The firm now owns more than 24,000 Holstein cows on its 2.6 million square-meter facility with 40 state of the art barns, has a daily capacity of producing up to 450 tons of fresh milk and juice products on a daily basis, and has more than 1,650 employees.

Baladna has expressed its interest in setting up a large-scale and fully integrated dairy facility in the Philippines, designed to be climate-independent using world-class management systems.

The project will significantly increase local milk production by 120 million litres from the current milk production of 26.71 million litres. This will be bringing the Philippines’ total milk production to 146.71 million litres, thus contributing to addressing the local demand of 2,927.04 million litres, of which bulk is imported.

“The investments will be able to generate 2,000 new jobs during the initial phase of its first full year of operations, providing significant opportunities for domestic employment,” said Dar.

Baladna underscored that their main consideration for supporting the Philippine government is to level the playing field and foster domestic dairy production.

Meanwhile, the support of DTI, through the Board of Investment (BOI), is through the facilitation of the advantage of incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law, which may also be extended to manufacturers who will be locally sourcing their inputs.

DTI and DA have also agreed to work together in looking at measures that will level the playing field, such as implementing proper labelling of fresh milk.

“DA has already identified five possible locations for the Baladna project and welcomes the Baladna team in the next few weeks for the site visit in the Philippines. DA will continuously provide the needed support to fast track the implementation of this project in coordination with DTI and other partner agencies,” Dar said.

The post Baladna QPSC to build large scale dairy facility in the Philippines appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Over the next few years, a flexible production facility will be built in Dieue-sur-Meuse, France, where different types of milk can be processed into soft cheese, cream cheese, and hard and semi-hard cheese. The plant is set to become a best practice example in terms of sustainability throughout the group due to its processing of recyclable packaging and the reduction of carbon footprint, Hochland noted.

In 2021, not only were the milk receiving lanes renovated and the gallery for milk buffer tanks expanded, the soft cheese ripening rooms also underwent renovation, and the wastewater treatment plant was renewed. Finally, the construction of a new employee parking lot has been implemented.

In Schongau, German ground was broken in mid-March 2021 for the new, fully automated high-bay warehouse. It will be equipped with two climate zones and around 10,000 pallet spaces for refrigerated finished goods, non-refrigerated auxiliary and operating materials, more than tripling the existing storage capacities at the site. Completion is scheduled for July.

The production of Gervais cottage cheese was additionally relocated to Schongau last year. To this end, existing production facilities were converted, and new equipment installed. So capacities to produce white cheese will be expanded by 2023.

In Heimenkirch the preparatory work has begun on a new shipping building, a high-bay warehouse, and a parking garage with over 700 parking spaces, all part of an overall concept with which Hochland is taking its development into its own hands for the next ten years.

Hochland is not only investing in its sites. In the coming years, many millions will be used to further expand, for example in the areas of sustainability and animal welfare, the company noted. To ensure that this can be implemented effectively, Hochland farmers will receive appropriate supplements on their milk payments.

The post Hochland plans expansion in Europe appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

As a result, its production is expected to increase by 10% in 2022. It is also introducing a fully Saudi female operated line for the Riyadh site, account to Asharq Al-awsat (english.aawsat.com).

Henrik Lilballe Hansen, vice president and managing director for Arla Foods Saudi Arabia noted the country is one of the leading markets for dairy products in the region and has “become a focal point for our production expansion goals.”

The post Arla expands in Saudi Arabia appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The announcement follows a strong financial year for Glanbia Nutritionals, with the company reporting an EBITA pre-exceptional of €69.7 million at HY 2021, up 17.1% constant currency on the prior HY (up 6.6% reported).

Glanbia Nutritionals, which has over 2,900 employees across the world, says new technology and equipment at the facility will support the ideation and creation of ingredient solutions for bars, snacks, beverages, baked goods and more for the European food and drink industry.

The upgraded site aims to encourage more face-to-face customer interactions and meetings, supporting a rapid development process and delivering efficient prototyping, ultimately offering a swift route to market for brands creating new products. Increased customer collaboration will be supported by an investment in new equipment including bar and beverage processing technology.

According to a study by Glanbia Nutritionals, 33% of UK consumers who snack admit to eating more when working from home. Low calorie and high protein claims in snacks are especially high priorities for millennials and Gen Z, demonstrating that the market for healthy snacks is experiencing rapid growth and increased consumer demand.

Glanbia Nutritionals’ CEO Brian Phelan commented: “This new, enhanced R&D facility will allow our teams to better deliver innovative solutions to our EMEA-based food and beverage, lifestyle and nutrition brand customers as a key part of our market strategy in the region. It is another fundamental element of our global investment strategy in research & development facilities, as we bring our unique solutions capability to our regional and global customers.

“The nutritional sector is increasingly competitive, so we wanted to ensure that we continue to offer first-class equipment to match the top quality expertise, consumer insights and operational knowledge that our customers have come to expect from Glanbia Nutritionals.”

Loren Ward, chief research and development Officer at Glanbia Nutritionals, said: “The new research facility will provide a collaborative environment with our customers and accelerate prototype development. It will help deliver a competitive advantage to our customers in launching new products, aligned with market trends and consumer demand.” 

The post Glanbia Nutritionals invests €1.4 million in R&D facility appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Current market trends see a high demand in prebiotic chicory root fibre due to the versatile benefits it offers in product development. Over the past four years, the number of new product launches containing chicory root fibre inulin has grown by 50% globally^[i], with the market expected to reach USD$11.48 billion in 2028^[ii]. Beneo’s latest investment will allow for continued fulfillment of market needs within the food and feed industry, while demonstrating the company’s commitment to growing its chicory root fibre business.

Christoph Boettger, member of the Executive Board at Beneo comments: “Beneo’s chicory root fibres meet key consumer needs of today and we are convinced that they will continue to play a central role in healthy nutrition in the future. With increased capacity, Beneo continues to offer a secure supply to its customers and partners worldwide.”

The chicory root fibres inulin and oligofructose are the only plant-based prebiotics. According to the International Scientific Association for Pro- and Prebiotics (ISAPP), they belong to the very few proven prebiotics. The use of chicory root fibres in product development allows manufacturers to respond to leading consumer trends such as digestive health and immunity, inner well-being, weight management, blood sugar management and bone health.

With two production sites in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres Beneo provides flexibility to customers, ensuring secure supply of prebiotic chicory root fibre around the world.

Boettger continues: “As announced previously, in summer 2022 a second refinery line in Pemuco will already increase the production capacity significantly. But we won’t stop there. The recent investment decision will ensure that Beneo’s production capacity is further growing. On top of this capacity increase, CO2 emissions are being reduced. This means that the production site in Pemuco will be carbon neutral in a few years. Additionally, the site in Oreye will have reduced the specific energy consumption per tonne of product by more than 50% by 2030.”

Such an achievement is only possible because Beneo can ensure that sustainability resonates in everything it does, with the highest level of energy efficiency being applied to the factory developments. These efforts are contributing to the company’s goal of being carbon neutral in 2045.

As well as contributing to Beneo’s carbon neutral ambitions, the investment will create a number of job opportunities as a result of expanded production facilities. At the Pemuco plant for example an increase of approximately 15% in employees is foreseen over the next few years.

The post Beneo announces multi-million investment in capacity extension for prebiotic chicory root fibre appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The post CP Kelco invests more than $50 million in Citrus Fiber capacity expansion appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The post First Milk invests in Agricarbon appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

“The demand for organic milk products is increasing and consumers are becoming more aware of regional and environmentally friendly foods,” says managing director Karin Artzt-Steinbrink.

The new location doubles the production area to 3,300 square metres. There will also be enough space for the trucks to maneuver over an area of 5,000 square metres.

In the course of planning the new building, the dairy put its packaging to the test. It commissioned Fraunhofer Umsicht with a life cycle assessment study: What is more sustainable: composite beverage cartons, plastic stand-up pouches or reusable glass bottles? The researchers took into account the production, transport and disposal of the various packaging options.

“We are very pleased that our study helped us decide on a sustainable investment. Our work is intended to support companies in improving their ecological balance sheet and becoming more sustainable,” says Anna Schulte, Sustainability and Participation Department at Fraunhofer Umsicht.

“We didn’t just want to react to a current trend. We wanted to find an ecologically sensible solution for our dairy. In order to obtain a basis for decision-making, we therefore decided on an individual packaging study,” explains Artzt-Steinbrink.

According to the study, glass becomes more advantageous for the dairy in comparison to composite milk cartons, if the number in circulation increases to up to 20. The higher the returns and the shorter the distances, the more sustainable the glass variant is in comparison.

The study also shows that the ecological balance of the bottle will improve even further in the next few years, as it will increasingly be transported with more environmentally friendly trucks.

After evaluating the study, the shareholders of the dairy decided to invest in a new packaging line for reusable glass in addition to the line for composite cardboard. The brown glass bottles are to be offered primarily in the region in the future.

“Since reusable glass can be used many times over and is also very easy to recycle, we are reducing the amount of waste and supporting the circular economy. We continue to rely on our cardboard packaging for deliveries to regions further away,” Artzt-Steinbrink notres.

In the new production facility, yogurt is to be produced for the first time and offered in 500g reusable jars. The former production site in the town center will produce only sour milk quark in the future. The milk museum, the organic shop and the administration will also remain at the historic site of the former mountain dairy, which was founded in 1898.

The post Upland updates with new plant appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Major construction projects are currently underway in Schongau and Heimenkirch, where, among other things, two high-bay warehouses are being built, as well as at almost all foreign locations. All in all, the Hochland Group came well through 2020, though, due to the closure of restaurants and hotels worldwide, sales of dairy products almost completely collapsed at times. At Hochland, the subsidiaries in the US and Spain were particularly affected. But rising demand in the general food trade helped to compensate for the drop in sales in the gastronomy sector. The largest volume increases in absolute terms were recorded in Germany and Russia. Double-digit growth was achieved by the Hochland, Patros and Gervais brands in Germany and Fetaxa in Russia. In terms of cheese categories, white cheese recorded the largest increase. Hochland’s market share (value) in Germany rose to 4.1%. The co-packing business unit performed even better than the brands, with double-digit growth as well. Above all, the export of processed cheese to third countries boomed.

The private label business also contributed to sales growth, among other things through value-added assortments with animal welfare label in Germany. Hochland Deutschland achieved a plus of 7% with this business segment in 2020. Overall, cheese sales across the group rose by 4% to 394,000 tons, which is over 16,000 tons more than in the previous year. Group sales grew by around 2%. The plant-based cheese alternatives under the Simply V brand continued their rapid development in 2020 and even exceeded the growth of the cheese brands. Two years after its foundation, the second start-up for plant-based products, Beetgold, recorded the first listings of its vegetable tortillas in the trade. The 2020 business year also went well for the Hochland engineering subsidiary Natec, as well as for Gold Peg in Australia. However, the ongoing pandemic led to purchasing restraint among international customers in the second half of the year. At the beginning of 2021, Natec’s order book was still at a low level, but there are now signs of a recovery.

The post Hochland invests in future appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

“The research around the health and immune benefits of lactoferrin is very compelling,” says David Lenzmeier, CEO of Milk Specialties Global. “We recognise that consumers are becoming more health conscious and we make it a priority to stay in tune with our customers. We are simply excited to play a key role in the development of the next generation of health-focused products.”

Lactoferrin is a unique protein fraction that occurs naturally in whey protein. Lactoferrin comprises only a tiny portion of the overall whey protein but offers powerful health benefits when concentrated. There is a growing body of research around the benefits of concentrated lactoferrin for all life stages including enhanced immune system support, promotion of “good” prebiotic bacteria for positive gut health and improved iron status. Recent studies have brought lactoferrin’s antiviral properties to the forefront, demonstrating that it can favourably influence human cell response to Covid-19 infection.

“Milk and its components are such an incredible canvas to create innovative products,” says Tom Benson, executive vice president at Milk Specialties Global. “As the world is becoming more health focused, we saw an opportunity to diversify our portfolio, deepen our commitment to customers and grow with them in the future.”

Lactoferrin is part of Milk Specialties’ NutriPRO family of products and comes in a wide range of concentration options – from 0.15% purity up to 95% purity. Lactoferrin is highly functional and can be used in a wide range of applications. Along with being a core ingredient in infant formula, lactoferrin is ideally suited for health supplements, medical nutrition products, ready-to-mix drinks and functional foods.

The post Milk Specialties Global begins lactoferrin production appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

In Mayk a new packaging and cutting machine will be installed for cutting and packaging cheese. At the same time, the Baackes & Heimes in Viersen has adapted its logo and website. The Frischpack logo features a yellow cheese slice, wrapped in a green border, while Baackes & Heimes appears with a red border around the yellow cheese slice.

“We are delighted with our new look and feel, for which we are keeping our established red as a recognition feature,” explains Stefan Welter, managing director of Baackes & Heimes. “Together with Frischpack we can fall back on decades of comprehensive cheese competence and well-founded know-how, a win-win situation for us and for our customers.”

The Frischpack Mailling site has been producing climate-neutrally since 2020 and is publishing its third sustainability report this year. In 2021, this should also be achieved for the location in Viersen. To this end, Baackes & Heimes has committed itself through Climate Partner, a reliable and certified partner in the field of climate neutrality, to the same climate projects that Frischpack supports.

Since the beginning of 2021, both locations have been working climate-neutrally.

A certified energy and environmental management system according to ISO 50001: 2018 and ISO 14001: 2015 is planned. Preparations should be completed by the end of this year.

“We have our sights set on the first joint sustainability report for the Frischpack Group for 2023,” Dieter Baur, managing director of the Frischpack Group says.

The post Frischpack expands prepack and sustainability appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

Recycled flake is cleaned and washed, however still requires further decontamination. Installed at Greiner Packaging’s factory in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, is a new world-class decontamination unit which enables the removal of impurities and hence, creating a food-safe material. This is integrated with a greater material feed system which is directly linked to a new, state of the art extrusion line. This equipment and process arrangement gives complete flexibility with the capacity to utilise recycled input materials, virgin or a combination of both, giving total flexibility to meet customer requirements.

“Investing in these two new machines is the latest step in our continued commitment to innovate, increase capacity and reduce our carbon footprint,” says Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland chief executive officer Philip Woolsey. “Since Greiner Packaging first introduced its K3® cardboard-plastic innovation in 2007, there has been continuous investment at our UK manufacturing facility. But alongside investing to create new packaging solutions, there has been a constant focus on investing in improving our environmental sustainability performance and pursuing our goal to achieve a circular economy. We are working steadily towards the Dungannon plant becoming carbon-neutral by 2025.”

In 2010, Project Cool delivered the water cooling needs at the Dungannon factory, through the introduction of energy consumption reducing wind power. This was immediately followed by the need to remove excess heat from the cooling system, and Project SCool still delivers the heating requirements for Integrated College across the road from the factory.

“From April 2019, we began the transition to meeting energy requirements solely from renewable sources, as of April 2021 we will have reached this milestone. In addition, with the introduction of LED lighting site-wide, we have reduced our energy requirement by over 500,000 kWh per annum,” says Woolsey.

Beyond rPET – investing to increase recycled material across all materials

“Installing the new equipment allows Greiner Packaging to integrate the supply chain, and it is planned to soon be able to include at least 30% recycled content in all products,” says Woolsey. “Rather than buying-in PET sheet and selling off any waste, we can now create recycled PET (rPET) sheet on-site, and re-use excess material.

“Until now, we have only extruded polypropylene (PP) in Dungannon, but now we can extrude rPET, and will soon also be trialling the extrusion of recycled polypropylene (rPP).

“Currently, most of the recycled PET supply available in the UK originates from plastic bottles, a very clean source. The new integrated line enables ‘tray-to-tray recycling’ – meaning that we can process material from a wider variety of sources and utilise a lighter grade of recyclate. This novel process and equipment arrangement will provide greater capability to control and enhance material characteristics to better meet customer’s product specifications.

“While rPET has become commonplace for chilled products such as salads, PP has remained the main material for dairy products and our aim is to offer increasing rPP content, even though food-grade PP recyclate is currently in short supply in the UK. Despite this, pilot quantities of rPP for product trials are already available.”

Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland is one of the founding members of the UK Plastics Pact, whose roadmap shows that the volume of pots, tubs and trays made from rPET will fall, while chemically recycled polypropylene will increase.

“While a lot of talk in the industry is currently only about rPET, we are already in a position to favour either rPET or rPP, and can produce the majority of our products using either material. Across Europe, we are already making products with rPP, and this is set to increase and will be introduced to the UK in 2021.”

Using the new in-house rPET capability, a wide range of 100% rPET K3 products are now available. Greiner Packaging’s adaptable, popular and successful K3 cardboard-plastic combination, reduces plastic consumption, while creating eye-catching packaging designed to maximise marketing opportunities. Thanks to its reduced plastic content, the K3 packaging solution has an improved CO2 footprint and it can be recycled efficiently, as the cardboard and plastic can be easily separated.

“By reducing the amount of plastic in our K3 cardboard-plastic combination product, cardboard becomes the major component, making K3 except from the upcoming plastic-tax,” says Woolsey. “This represents another significant step in our journey to helping our customers to add value, while also delivering on our circular economy commitments.”

The post Greiner Packaging invests to increase recycled content in packaging appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The investment will transform the Hokitika-plant’s capability from being largely a producer of bulk commodity butter to one that has a vastly increased capacity to produce goods for the high-value global consumer market, the company says.

Since acquiring Westland in 2019, Yili has fully integrated the company into its global network, giving Westland access to extensive resources, market channels, technology and funding. The investment from Yili’s Goldrush project transforms Westland’s production, packaging and warehousing systems and will increase annual consumer butter production capacity to 42,000 tons.

More than 95% of Westland’s milk is sourced solely from natural grass-fed cows, grazing in the pastures of one of the world’s most unique dairy catchments. This area boasts a high annual rainfall and is regarded as a pristine dairy farming environment. Grass-fed milk is known to be rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid and other nutrients.

Westgold’s salted and unsalted butter have been awarded the gold medals at the annual New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards three times, most recently in 2021. Westgold and Westland-produced butter is currently sold in more than 20 countries including China, the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The post Yili to double butter capacity at Westland in NZ appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

The investment at the Lake District Creamery will see new high-capacity cheese blockformers installed, as well as new water, milk, cream and whey handling processes. This marks the fourth stage of a multi-year investment totalling around £14m at the Lake District site since 2019, which has seen major upgrades including a new rapid chill store and improvements to milk processing equipment.

The investment at the Haverfordwest Creamery will see a new chilled-water plant delivered, as well as a significant upgrade to the whey process. This comes on the back of an £8m investment in the Haverfordwest site, completed last year, which included a new cheese tower, separators, additional milk silos, as well as the installation of a combined heat and power plant.

Overall, this £30m investment over the last three years will take processing capacity of both sites up by over 20%, ensuring First Milk is well placed to meet the growing requirements of customers in the UK and in export markets.

Commenting on the developments, Shelagh Hancock, chief executive, said: “We are committed to investing in our processing facilities to continuously drive operational efficiency, product quality and sustainability. This investment programme will unlock additional capacity, whilst helping us further enhance our award-winning product quality. What’s more, this capital spend enables us to reduce energy and water use, helping us to meet our ambitious First4Milk environmental targets and reinforcing our commitment to sustainable dairy.

“Including these new projects, we will have invested around £30m in our cheese production sites since 2018, ensuring our business is resilient and well-placed to meet the growing demand from our customers across the world,  helping us to further improve the returns to our farmer members for the long-term.”

The post First Milk announces £12.5m investment in cheese & whey processing facilities appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

After 64 years as owner of Elopak, Ferd is now exploring the opportunity of inviting additional investors into the company. The news comes on the back of solid results for the company in 2020 and is intended to support Elopak to realise its ambitions for innovation and growth.

The post Ferd explores opportunities for next chapter in Elopak’s history appeared first on Dairy Industries International.

TurtleTree Labs, which has offices in San Francisco and Singapore, will use the funds to accelerate research and production of functional, bioactive proteins and complex sugars found in human milk. These high-value components have potential benefits in gut and brain health, according to the company, which can be applied to both infant and senior nutrition.

“The vision of TurtleTree Labs is to create a truly sustainable and cruelty-free food system,” adds Max Rye, chief strategist of TurtleTree Labs. “We are grateful to have the support of leading investors from every corner of the world.”

The company also announced that HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, a prominent global investor in the alternative protein sector through KBW Ventures, will join TurtleTree Labs as an advisor. KBW Ventures first invested in the TurtleTree Labs seed round announced in June 2020 and has committed additional capital to the latest round, the Pre-A raise.

In his role as advisor, Prince Khaled will shape new market growth plans, lend his expertise in the alternative protein and food tech spheres, and liaise closely with the founding team on other areas of the business.

“TurtleTree Labs’ groundbreaking technology, which allowed our company to win The Liveability Challenge and Entrepreneurship World Cup, has certainly attracted interest from a global and diverse panel of investors and customers,” says Fengru Lin, CEO of TurtleTree Labs.

“TurtleTree Labs’ technology is able to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and address food resilience in the long term. This is a win-win for our planet and for communities. We are happy that The Liveability Challenge is able to showcase sustainable ideas and innovations from around the world, and support winners like TurtleTree Labs and other innovators to secure funding and opportunities to further develop their solutions,” said Mr Lim Hock Chuan, chief executive, Temasek Foundation Ecosperity.

“TurtleTree Labs represents the spirit and impact of the Entrepreneurship World Cup where they emerged from a pool of 175,000 registrants from 200 countries,” adds Ana Maria Torres, director for the Entrepreneurship World Cup. “This investment — and the continued support it will receive from a global network of ecosystem leaders — provides them with an opportunity to scale in a rapidly-changing industry while addressing an extensive global need.”

The post TurtleTree Labs raises $6.2 million in Pre-A funding round appeared first on Dairy Industries International.