Glenisk products return to the shelves

Four months on from a devastating fire that completely gutted the Glenisk plant in Killeigh, the iconic Glenisk organic yogurt brand was once again back on supermarket shelves nationwide this week following a resumption of yogurt production at the dairy manufacturing facility on Tuesday.

Managing director of the plant Vincent Cleary described the move as "the start of the comeback" to completely rebuild the award-winning business, and said his staff had “achieved the impossible” in managing to resume yogurt production.

Glenisk returned to yogurt production from their ‘Plan B’ manufacturing facility which was built in just four months on the corner of their original manufacturing site.

They will continue to operate from this facility until their new carbon neutral manufacturing plant is built. The company estimates that it will take “at least a year” for the new facility to be completed.

The ‘Plan B’ manufacturing plant is less automated and more labour intensive than the original factory in Newtown, so more staff are required to produce less yogurt.

Vincent Cleary told RTÉ in an interview on Tuesday that he was not “overly concerned” about losing market share for Glenisk products and predicted that issue would “resolve itself over time” once the new plant is complete.

Prior to the fire which gutted the Glenisk plant on September 27 last, the company was producing 57 different products, with their organic yogurts making up 90% of the business, and holding the number one spot in the Irish yogurt market.

The company has returned to yogurt production with just two products from their extensive range – Organic Bio Wholemilk Natural Yogurt and Organic Greek Style Natural Yogurt. However, they are planning to introduce two further products in the range next week and will continue to roll out their full range of organic yogurts in the coming weeks, with their very popular kids yogurt range coming on stream next month.

Describing the combined effort to ensure the resumption of yogurt making at the Killeigh facility as "a sprint," Vincent Cleary said staff had been working every weekend since the plant was destroyed by fire in September and that the company had got "great support both locally and nationally.” He added that they had been put “on top of a lot of waiting lists” when it came to sourcing materials and labour to rebuild their ‘Plan B’ manufacturing facility.

He said both his own staff and the many contractors and materials suppliers they have been dealing with since last September had gone “above and beyond” in their efforts to get the stricken plant up and running again, including “working through Christmas and offering solutions at every turn.”

Mr Cleary said: “We are deeply indebted to them all, here in Offaly, and further afield.”