Kilkenny Cheese saw €196.5 million in revenue last year as cheese production ramped up in the “milestone” first year of operations at the €200 million Belview-based cheese factory.
Pretax profits stood at €5.3 million, according to new accounts for Killkenny Cheese Ltd, the company behind the joint venture between family-owned Dutch dairy producer Royal A-Ware and Tirlán.
The plant is expected to ramp up annual production to more than 50,000 tonnes of continental cheeses such as Edam, Gouda and Emmental. The cheese will be manufactured using as much as 450 million litres of milk from Tirlán milk suppliers each year, with most of the product being brought to market by Royal A-ware.
The factory was planned to eliminate the need for Tirlán to send its milk to third-party processors during the peak supply period.
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A spokesman for the dairy co-operative said the factory “played a key role” in processing 8 per cent more milk during the peak spring months.
The plant is ramping up to full production with 2024 hailed as a “milestone” year as it exited its commissioning phase.
The Kilkenny Cheese factory has allowed Tirlán to enter the continental cheese production market for the first time, the spokesman said, noting “over 40,000 tonnes of continental cheese was successfully produced in 2024.”
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Of its €196 million revenue, €171 million was generated through the production of dairy products, with the remaining turnover coming from the sale of goods produced upstream and during the commissioning phase of the factory.
The company recorded an operating profit of €10.6 million, once accounting for costs of sales of €171.7 million and administrative costs of €24.8 million.
Kilkenny Cheese purchased €155.6 million of goods from Tirlán, with the dairy group also accounting for nearly 20 per cent of its sales, with the remainder being purchased by Royal A-ware. The two companies each hold a 50 per cent shareholding in the production business.
The plant was envisaged to create 80 jobs during production, in 2024 the plant exceeded that number with its employee headcount rising from 27 in 2023 during the construction phase, to 83 in 2024 as production began.
Staff costs – a combination of pay, pension contributions and social insurance costs – amounted to €4.54 million in 2024.
The company paid €5.5 million in interest repayable on bank loans taken on to fund the construction of the plant. The dairy producer lists slightly more than €203 million in loans in its accounts, of which €183.3 million is from banks, with the remainder from related parties or routine operations.
Construction of the continental cheese production facility began in 2022, with then Fine Gael tánaiste Leo Varadkar turning the first sod, following the Supreme Court dismissing an appeal aimed at overturning planning permission for the plant.
The court ruled in 2022 that upstream consequences of the proposed factory, specifically from milk production, were not indirect significant effects liable to be assessed under the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Directive or the Habitats Directive.
The plant is aimed at providing Tirlán farmers with a new route to market in an attempt to diversify the group’s product offering following the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Tirlán has been contacted for comment.
