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Arla Foods has secured a €210 million investment in mozzarella production at its Taw Valley site in the UK. The capital will be used to introduce "highly advanced production technology" at the dairy site. The investment allows the company to better meet customer demands, ensure competitiveness and drive growth in line with its Future26 strategy. According to the company, the new technology enables better flexibility and innovation opportunities to meet customer demands for mozzarella that browns, melts or stretches in specific ways. The technology, which includes several patents, reduces the maturing process from 14 days to just one. Arla Foods' executive vice president and COO, Peter Giørtz-Carlsen, said: “Our mozzarella business has seen double-digit growth over the past five years, and we have strong relationships with key customers, particularly in global foodservice, and it’s from that very solid starting point we are announcing the investment today”. “But we also know that we have to work hard to maintain that position amongst the global leaders in the category and deliver on our strategy. This investment allows us to stay among the leaders within mozzarella, serve our customers even better and at the same time improve profitability for our farmer owners’ milk.” Arla Foods' executive vice president and head of supply chain, David Boulanger, commented: “With this investment, Taw Valley will become a state-of-the-art cheese production site and combined with our strong channel understanding in the global mozzarella category, we are strengthening further our business”. The company said that the cheese produced at Taw Valley will increase Arla Foods' mozzarella production, with most of it destined for export to global foodservice customers. Boulanger added: “This is a prime example of how we at Arla Foods constantly innovate in our process capabilities, improve our efficiency and drive product superiority in order to deliver our strategic ambitions, create growth and ultimately secure value for our farmer owners”. Construction is expected to be completed by 2026, with the first products from the new facility ready the following year. The investment will not impact Arla Foods' two other mozzarella production sites in Denmark.