Irish dairy ingredients firm Glanbia announced last week that it has established a new business unit to integrate its international nutritional business under one management structure.
The new unit, Glanbia Nutritionals, has been set up to advance the group's position in the growing nutritional ingredients market through strategic alliances, joint venture agreements and acquisitions. It will also continue to develop existing operations, said the company, officially announcing the news at the SupplySide West tradeshow in the US last week.
John Moloney, group managing director of Glanbia, said: "The creation of Glanbia Nutritionals is a vital component of our growth strategy in the nutritional sector. It brings together under one structure the necessary innovation, sales and marketing and strategic development resources required to advance our current position in this sector."
The new business unit, to be headed by Jerry O'Dea, formerly vice-president of Glanbia Ingredients USA, will have international sales offices and production sites. A new executive management team includes Andy Fleming, executive vice-president of finance and strategy, Steve Singer, vice-president of sales and customer service, Robert Beausire, director of business development and Eric Bastian, director of research and development.
With manufacturing facilities in both Ireland and the US, Glanbia currently sells to the infant, medical and sports nutrition markets as well as functional foods and nutraceuticals. The ingredient range includes whey isolates and concentrates, milk minerals and lactoferrin under the Provon, CFM, TruCal and Bioferrin brands.
The company said that a development programme was underway to bring additional nutritional solutions to market, which saw the opening of a new state-of-the art R&D and applications centre in Twin Falls, Idaho this month.
Parent company Glanbia, one of Europe's leading dairy companies and one of the world's largest cheese manufacturers, has annual sales over $3 billion (€2.96bn).