Ingredients Solutions Ltd marked a major milestone in the company’s growth with the official opening of its new cheese processing facility in Boherbue, Co Cork. The €15m investment in the purpose-built facility will see the company increase production capacity from 12,000t per year to up to 35,000t per year.
Since the company was founded almost 25 years ago Ingredient Solutions had been operating from the former Boherbue Co-op site in the town. The new processing plant is purpose built and, at 5,000 sqm, has four times the floor area of the previous area.
The company had long outgrown its previous site, with customer demand for product meaning it was forced to use chilled containers and trailers as storage facilities.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the opening, company managing director Gary Davies said that the new facility will allow for significant production efficiencies. “With people, space and time, we’ll more than double capacity. It’s all about having the cheese in the right place, we’ve run out of space [in the current factory]. The increase in production will mean more shifts and it will mean more people.
“We’ve built this facility not just to meet today’s needs, but to secure our ability to innovate and grow in the years ahead,” he added.
The company currently employs almost 100 people in the village, with potential for up to 50 new jobs as production ramps up.
Davies said that as part of the Rupp AG group he sees that there are customers for the increased volume of cheese. Rupp AG, a family-owned cheese company based in Austria, bought Ingredient Solutions in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The most recent accounts for Ingredient Solutions available from the company’s registration office showed an operating profit in 2023 of €1.76m on a turnover of €59.61m.
Rupp AG board members, Laura Rupp, John Broekmans, Mathias Gattermayer, Daniel Marte, Stefan Walter, Ingredient Solutions Managing Director Gary Davies pictured at the official opening of the new facility.
As well as backing from the Rupp Group, the company thanked Enterprise Ireland, AIB, Cork County Council, ORS Consulting, Boherbue Co-Op, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Bord Bia and the wider Duhallow community for their support in delivering the project “on time and to the highest standard”.
The event also saw the launch of a refreshed version of Ingredient Solutions’ Yellow Road brand, named after the English translation of Boherbue, which will target new markets in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Business model
The Ingredients Solutions business model does not involve processing any milk. Instead, the company purchases cheese in bulk from dairy processors and manufactures product to suit its customers’ needs.
Davies said that while a significant amount of its needs are met by cheese produced at Irish co-ops, the company does import some cheese for processing from the UK to suit individual customer’ tastes for different types of cheese, particularly stronger flavoured cheddars. The facility in Cork specialises in adding value to mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.
While much of what the company produces is sold to food service and the prepared consumer food (PCF) sector, Davies said they can be flexible about what they produce, saying that they can do retail offerings as well as larger packages.
Ingredients Solutions Ltd marked a major milestone in the company’s growth with the official opening of its new cheese processing facility in Boherbue, Co Cork. The €15m investment in the purpose-built facility will see the company increase production capacity from 12,000t per year to up to 35,000t per year.
Since the company was founded almost 25 years ago Ingredient Solutions had been operating from the former Boherbue Co-op site in the town. The new processing plant is purpose built and, at 5,000 sqm, has four times the floor area of the previous area.
The company had long outgrown its previous site, with customer demand for product meaning it was forced to use chilled containers and trailers as storage facilities.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the opening, company managing director Gary Davies said that the new facility will allow for significant production efficiencies. “With people, space and time, we’ll more than double capacity. It’s all about having the cheese in the right place, we’ve run out of space [in the current factory]. The increase in production will mean more shifts and it will mean more people.
“We’ve built this facility not just to meet today’s needs, but to secure our ability to innovate and grow in the years ahead,” he added.
The company currently employs almost 100 people in the village, with potential for up to 50 new jobs as production ramps up.
Davies said that as part of the Rupp AG group he sees that there are customers for the increased volume of cheese. Rupp AG, a family-owned cheese company based in Austria, bought Ingredient Solutions in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The most recent accounts for Ingredient Solutions available from the company’s registration office showed an operating profit in 2023 of €1.76m on a turnover of €59.61m.
Rupp AG board members, Laura Rupp, John Broekmans, Mathias Gattermayer, Daniel Marte, Stefan Walter, Ingredient Solutions Managing Director Gary Davies pictured at the official opening of the new facility.
As well as backing from the Rupp Group, the company thanked Enterprise Ireland, AIB, Cork County Council, ORS Consulting, Boherbue Co-Op, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Bord Bia and the wider Duhallow community for their support in delivering the project “on time and to the highest standard”.
The event also saw the launch of a refreshed version of Ingredient Solutions’ Yellow Road brand, named after the English translation of Boherbue, which will target new markets in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Business model
The Ingredients Solutions business model does not involve processing any milk. Instead, the company purchases cheese in bulk from dairy processors and manufactures product to suit its customers’ needs.
Davies said that while a significant amount of its needs are met by cheese produced at Irish co-ops, the company does import some cheese for processing from the UK to suit individual customer’ tastes for different types of cheese, particularly stronger flavoured cheddars. The facility in Cork specialises in adding value to mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.
While much of what the company produces is sold to food service and the prepared consumer food (PCF) sector, Davies said they can be flexible about what they produce, saying that they can do retail offerings as well as larger packages.
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