Arla Foods has decided to shut a plant in Denmark making cheese sold under the European dairy giant’s Castello brand.

The company is to close the Lillebælt Dairy by the start of 2019. Some 66 staff work at the facility. Production will move to Arla’s Troldhede Dairy site.

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“Having conducted a thorough analysis of Lillebælt Dairy, this has shown that it is no longer profitable to continue production,” Lars Dalsgaard, the group vice president at Arla who has global responsibility for the co-op’s cheese production. It will require substantial investment to secure long-term production at this site. Similarly, by combining the production of white mould cheese at Troldhede Dairy, our costs will be lowered, which will benefit our farmer owners.”

Arla said it would offer the staff affected jobs at two other dairies in Denmark, in Korsvej and Taulov.

When Arla reported its financial results in 2016, it booked a 3% rise in volume sales from Castello.

In April, Arla outlined plans to invest EUR12m (US$13.7m) to establish infant formula production at its Akafa plant in Jutland in Denmark.

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