DMV to invest €57 million in whey

A new plant will be highly automated and will be the most efficient and largest whey processing plant in Europe.

DMV International has announced plans for a € 57 million investment into its whey processing and food ingredient facilities in Veghel, The Netherlands. The project is planned to be finalised by December 31, 2006. The new plant will be highly automated and will be the most efficient and largest whey processing plant in Europe. The project ‘Veghel Force’ is the company’s largest investment ever and will enable DMV International to capitalise on market opportunities.

The move comes to meet the demands for whey derivatives, a market that is showing annual growth rates of approximately 10 per cent. The plans come as Campina’s industrial arm shifts some of its focus away from large volume products to value-added products. Lex van Moorsel at DMV would not specify to FoodIngredientsFirst exactly what precise type of whey-based ingredients will be developed at the plant, but he would go so far as to say that application areas will include food and nutritional products such as infant formula.

Van Moorsel said that plans for the investment project had started one and a half years ago, when there was no talk of a Campina and Arla merger. However while the imminent merger, which should be rounded off in the middle of this year, did not have anything to do with the decision, he was positive that the whey investment can only benefit from a synergy with Arla. “When the Board okayed the investment project they were fully aware of the merger, which will only offer certain synergies from this respect”, Van Moorsel said.

Meanwhile Campina in general is shifting towards value-added products, with commodity products not being discontinued, but being outsourced to third-parties instead. “There is an absolute focus at Campina on focusing on value-added ingredients such as ferment enhancers, toppings, fat concentrates, yogurt stabilisers – complex ingredients for food systems, using our basic dairy based products,” he said.

The Veghel investment comes together with the news that restructuring operations will see the closure of facilities at DMV’s Uitgeest plant, affecting 36 jobs, predominantly in operations. Campina said that efforts will be made to find solutions within the company for those employees.

Last week DMV announced plans to open a new Innovation Centre for Food & Nutrition in December. The new centre will be located in the heart of ‘Food Valley’, an internationally recognised centre of excellence in Food Sciences in the The Netherlands.