Glanbia Cheese Plant Expansion, Gooding, ID, USA

In May 2005 Glanbia announced a further expansion of its cheese production facility at Gooding, Idaho, USA. The plant, which is already one of the largest cheese manufacturing facilities in the world, being able to produce 780,000lb of American-style cheese per day, is to undergo a $13 million expansion.

Originally commissioned in 1991, for the Gooding plant this will be the second expansion inside 18 months. The plant underwent extensive renovation and expansion in 2000, and again in 2004, making it one of the most efficient cheese manufacturing facilities in the world.

Glanbia Foods has 500 employees working in the Magic Valley, where Gooding is located. Canals were built to carry water from the Snake River to Milner Dam in 1905 - shortly after, productive farmland and the town of Gooding seemed to spring up out of nowhere on the sagebrush-covered southern Idaho desert, giving rise to the 'Magic Valley' name.

The Gooding facility already processes 7.1 million lb of milk daily from more than 100,000 local cows. This expansion will increase production an additional 20%, requiring milk from 20,000 more cows. Once this expansion is completed, the Gooding cheese factory will manufacture approximately 900,000lb of cheese every day.

The barrel plant, located in Gooding, Idaho, is the largest barrel cheese producing plant in the world. The plant produces 500lb barrels of American-style cheese that are sold as an ingredient in producing processed cheese slices. Gooding produces 360 million pounds of cheese annually. The most popular products include cheddar, mozzarella, Monterey Jack, Swiss, Colby, Colby Jack and Pepper Jack.

OTHER DAIRY PRODUCTS AND ANOTHER EXPANSION

The Gooding plant also has a lucrative ingredient manufacturing facility at Gooding which uses the whey by-product from cheese manufacture to produce other high value products.

The ingredients manufactured at Gooding currently include: Avonlac 134, a whey protein concentrate with 34% refined edible lactose, Thermax™, a heat stable whey protein, Bioferrin™, a bioactive milk protein and TruCal, a powdered milk calcium product that can also be put into capsules, drinks or bars. Glanbia Foods, in a separate project worth $3 million, is to expand the Gooding facility's TruCal production by 37%.

The expansion was started in February 2005 because international demand is so high for TruCal (customers want food fortified with milk calcium). The expansion will add roughly 2,000ft² to the current Gooding processing plant, where the first stage of production for TruCal takes place. The product leaves the Gooding facility in liquid form and is transported to Richfield, where it is spray dried before being sold. The expansion will not increase the company's need of local raw milk. The expansion is scheduled for completion in November.

EXPANSION AND CONTRACTORS

Glanbia will add two new cheese-making vats and expand downstream equipment such as a cheese belt system, add barrel-forming cheese towers, extend the cooler section, increase receiving-bay space and erect new raw-milk storage silos. The $13 million cheese manufacturing expansion in Gooding is set to begin in late May and be completed in May 2006.

The Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization (SIEDO) is supporting the expansion. POWER Engineers are to provide complete A/E designs for the 30,000ft² facility expansion under a design-build arrangement with Baugh Industrial. The project is on a design-build approach with a fast-track schedule and will incorporate new process technology.

Designs being used to accommodate minimal downtime during construction include tilt-up concrete panels and pre-cast concrete double-T roof panels with additional structural designs to resist high winds and seismic forces.

Plant services upgrades will include a chilled water system upgrade a boiler system addition, soft and tempered water distribution, a plant air system upgrade, a waste water sump addition, a domestic water system upgrade, a refrigeration system upgrade and a new HVAC system.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Glanbia is also close to completing the construction of a wastewater pre-treatment plant in Gooding, the first ever built by a cheese processor in the state of Idaho. This additional $13 million project was initially operational in July 2005 and will be fully operational by November 2005. The wastewater pre-treatment works has been designed to handle future expansions at the Gooding facility. The wastewater treatment plant will remove more solids in the wastewater than previously and eliminate odours.

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