£20m Greenfield Anglesy Cheese plant to open in September

A state of the art cheese plant with the capacity to produce Welsh and European cheeses including Cheddar, Edam, and Gouda is set to take milk from September creating 100 jobs in Anglesey.

 

The project planning started life in 2016 and has taken 5 years to reach this stage. This Bulletin first mentioned the project in early March 2017, which at the time was planned to take circa 40 million litres a year from a group of 20 local spring grazers.

 

The factory once completed is understood to have 7,000 tonnes capacity and require circa 70 million litres of milk a year. Whilst the factory is badged as the most modern cheese factory in Europe it will be labour intensive if 100 people are required to produce 7,000 tonnes of cheese.

 

MD of the new “Mona Island Dairy” is the flying Dutchman Ronald Akkerman who was last seen flying back to Holland having exited both the UK Dairy industry and the Partners in cheese new build near Carlisle having suddenly sold all the share capital and its milk field producers to Meadow.

 

The Chairman and one of the key cogs in driving the build is local Dairy farmer David Wynne-Finch who was also one of the founder Directors of the Carlisle project with Akkerman.

 

Of the £20million investment it is understood £3million has come from Welsh Government funding. No doubt the Welsh Government will be praying their investment in this dairy plant fairs better than the £5million they invested in Tomlinsons where 331 staff and 72 farmers plus many others took a beating as the business folded spectacularly in October 2019.