Lakeland collects over 800,000 litres of milk directly from Northern Ireland dairy farmers each day and over 1 billion litres of milk north and south each year
Lakeland Dairies has opened a new global logistics centre in Newtownards, Co Down, as part of a €10m investment.
The new centre, supported by Invest NI to the tune of €1.5m, is among the most technically-advanced global export facilities in Europe.
The new logistics centre is based at Lakeland’s Pritchetts dairy food-service manufacturing site in Newtownards.
The investment positions Newtownards as a key strategic site for Lakeland Dairies, where its dairy food-service manufacturing plant provides employment for more than 200 people from the local community.
With a heritage of excellence in dairying spanning more than 117 years, Lakeland Dairies is one of the island’s largest dairy co-operatives with major processing operations north and south.
Lakeland collects more than 800,000 litres of milk directly from Northern Ireland dairy farmers each day and more than 1bn litres of milk north and south each year
Using state-of-the-art technology, the Newtownards site has 12 different production lines making over 100,000 tonnes of dairy products and 700m individual product units each year.
‘Due to the technologically-advanced capability of our plants, we have a constant flexibility to divert milk into the highest-value dairy product categories’
– MICHAEL HANLEY
These include ice-cream mixes, UHT milk, milk portions, flavoured milks, added-value dairy creams, powdered desserts, cappuccino toppings and ice-cream powder. The co-operative markets 170 high-quality dairy food-service and food ingredient products to 77 countries worldwide, exporting close to 100pc of its entire production capacity to every corner of the globe.
Lakeland’s sustainable mission
“Our mission is to create long-term sustainability for our milk producers through value-added processing and export-led growth,” said Michael Hanley, CEO of Lakeland Dairies.
“This requires the right economies of scale, the most competitive processing plants in the industry and the achievement of total efficiency across all of our operations. We are very pleased to acknowledge the expertise and support we have received from Invest NI for this flagship development in Newtownards.
“Due to the technologically-advanced capability of our plants, we have a constant flexibility to divert milk into the highest value dairy product categories. Our new Global Logistics Centre will give us a further competitive advantage as we continue to serve our customers throughout the world and target new market development opportunities in the interests of our producers,” said Hanley.
Co. Down image via Shutterstoc
