Glanbia formally opens a major new grain facility on Friday. The state-of-the-art food-grade oats mill in Portlaoise is a statement of the confidence Glanbia has in the grain business, and represents a significant investment.

The mill is the latest addition to the Portlaoise facility, and will process oats for Sturm, the US Company that owns the McCann’s porridge brands. It will also shortly process its first consignment of gluten-free oats from Glanbia’s handpicked growers. The plant was designed by Glanbia. While the plant equipment comes from Swiss company Bühler, much of the control systems were locally sourced. Construction only took 13 months from sod-turning in November 2012 to production of the first porridge on 23 December last year. Full report next week