Mondelez International has announced that it will make an investment of $5m (€3.6m) in its Cadbury chocolate crumb manufacturing plant in Rathmore, Co Kerry.

The news is a real vote of confidence from Mondelez in its Irish suppliers. Every half pound of Cadbury dairy milk contains a glass and a half of fresh Irish milk sourced from cows in Kerry.

Cadbury sources 80 million litres of fresh milk annually for use in making chocolate crumb. Milk is sourced from the Kerry Group, Boherbue and Lee Strand.

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The company, which owns the billion dollar Cadbury brand, has said the investment will include “the installation of a new milk evaporator to replace existing technology, and new buildings”.

Increased capacity

The new milk evaporator will allow the company to drive efficiencies as it uses significantly less fuel while it will also increase the production capacity.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Ian O’Toole, head of manufacturing at the Rathmore plant, said: “The enhanced technology forms part of an overall Mondelez manufacturing strategy to drive efficiency in manufacturing processes and ways of working. This investment improves Rathmore’s competitiveness.”

Subject to planning approval, work is due to begin in May. The target completion date is August 2015.

According to O’Toole, Cadbury looks for specific qualities in its milk supply. “Our milk specification requires a specific level of fat and solids.

The chocolate crumb produced in Rathmore contributes to chocolate that has a very distinctive taste. The milk sourced in Ireland and the diet of the cows here adds to this unique taste.”

Chocolate crumb is the base ingredient for chocolate products. 60% of all the chocolate crumb produced in the Rathmore factory went to the Cadbury chocolate factory in Coolock, Dublin. The remaining 40% was exported to the US, Canada and the UK.

Takeover

Cadbury’s was bought by Kraft Foods in 2010 when it agreed to pay $18.5bn for the company after a hard-fought takeover process. Not long after the deal was complete, Kraft Foods decided to go ahead with a surprising demerger process that effectively split the group into two publically traded companies, Mondelez International, the global snacks company, and Kraft Foods Group, the North American grocery products company.

More than 100 snack brands, including Cadbury, Milka, Toblerone and Oreo, were transferred under the newly formed Mondelez International. Last year the company recorded sales of $35.3bn with a net income of $3.9bn.