Glanbia Ireland’s relationship with Kerrygold (Ornua) is a hugely important one, with the former Irish Dairy Board being a significant customer in the Ingredients Category.

Kerrygold Lactic Butter has a distinct flavour that consumers love, making it one of the most popular and recognisable Irish brands in the world.

Kerrygold has an intensely buttery flavour due to the naturally occurring compounds in the product. As part of our continuous improvement programme with this customer, this buttery flavor (diacetyl) was deemed a “critical parameter” for Ornua.  A project team was set up to investigate continuous improvement around this flavor, consisting of cross-functional representatives from Production, Quality, R&D, Finance, Logistics, Planning, Customer Service and Commercial. Several external experts including research institutions, competitors and suppliers were also engaged to help work on this project.

Throughout the project the primary objective was to work with the customer to ensure we continue to deliver the superior product they expect. The team worked on understanding how the flavor compound naturally occurs during the production process and how this can be kept at consistent levels. Using this knowledge, several mitigation actions were put in place to ensure that Gl would always consistently deliver this buttery flavor in the Kerrygold brand. Understanding the challenge, solving it, and keeping our biggest customer happy was thanks to a collaborative team effort.