Ornua acquires CoreFX Ingredients

Irish dairy exporter Ornua has acquired US-based dairy ingredient manufacturer CoreFX Ingredients, and a powder ingredient production facility in Orangeville, Illinois.

CoreFX Ingredients is a division of New Jersey-based cheese supplier MCT Dairies.

Financial details of the transaction have not been revealed by either company. This acquisition is Ornua’s first speciality dry ingredients production facility in the US.

“The support of an international dairy company of Ornua’s reputation and track record will help enormously with our growth plans.”

Ornua CEO Kevin Lane said: “This acquisition is another key milestone in Ornua’s US expansion programme and is in-line with our strategy to invest in high-growth and profitable dairy businesses.

“CoreFX Ingredients will provide our ingredients division with greater scale and enhances our capability to deliver bespoke ingredient solutions to our customers. Importantly, we can share its dairy technologies across all of our ingredient operations around the world and, in turn, drive growth.”

The acquisition of CoreFX Ingredients complements Ornua’s existing ingredients production facilities in Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UK and the US, delivering scale and shared dairy technologies.

CoreFX Ingredients incorporates spray drying and dry blending technologies to produce a wide range of dairy, cheese and lipid powder ingredient solutions for food manufacturing and foodservice customers across the US.

CoreFX Ingredients CEO Denis Neville said: “This investment affords the CoreFX Ingredients business the opportunity to grow through the addition of technologies, infrastructure and people.

“The support of an international dairy company of Ornua’s reputation and track record will help enormously with our growth plans.”

Ornua also intends to enhance the scale and capability of the CoreFX Ingredients business through customer-led innovation, dairy technologies and its team expertise.

The Irish dairy exporter is planning to invest in the development of the production facility’s technical capabilities and a customer innovation centre at its Chicago headquarters.