Arla Foods, one of the world’s top-10 dairy processors, has announced it will spend €210m developing a new mozzarella facility at its Taw Valley creamery in Devon, UK. The factory, when it starts production in 2027 will use state-of-the-art technology to better meet customer demands, Arla said.

Among the innovations, which include several patents, will be the ability for the plant to reduce the maturing process for mozzarella from 14 days to one. The company said the majority of the production from the plant will be exported to its global business customers.

Arla added that the investment would have no impact on the company’s two other mozzarella production sites in Denmark.

Executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Arla said that the investment, which is the company’s largest ever in the UK, “allows us to stay among the leaders within mozzarella, serve our customers even better and at the same time improve profitability for our farmer owners’ milk”.

Future26 strategic plan

Arla said the investment is part of its Future26 strategic plan which saw total investments last year of €600m. Revenue at the co-op in 2023 was €13.7bn, with profit of €380m.

In Ireland, Carberry opened a mozzarella facility in 2020, while Leprino operates a purpose-built mozzarella plant on Portlaoise after it bought out Glanbia’s stake last year.