Boortmalt, a subsidiary of French agro-cooperative Axéréal and one of the world’s leading malt providers for the beer and the distilling industry, has decided to extend its yearly malting capacity in Athy, located 80 km southwest of Ireland’s capital Dublin, by 30,000 tons.
The expansion project, which is led by Patrick Kennedy, Maltings Manager and Noel Gaffney, Plant Performance Manager, and the company McElroy Associates, includes new steeping, germination and kilning vessels as well as additional malt out loading facilities. Commercial negotiations are currently ongoing and the successful principal contractor is due to be appointed before end December 2017. According to the plans, the additional malting capacity will be available by June 2019.
This is already the third extension project, which was announced by Boortmalt’s CEO Yvan Schaepman this year. In February, the company said it would add a fourth malting plant to the Antwerp site, making it the world’s largest malt production facility with a yearly malting capacity of 470.000 tons. Additionally the company announced to construct an 80,000 ton malting plant in Ethiopia, which will be operational before the end of 2018. At that time, Boortmalt said, these two new projects were designed to bring total capacity from 1.1 to 1.3 million tons. (inside.beer, 8.2.2017)
In order to finance its growth, Axereal Group announced on 5 July 2017 that it had raised €150 million ($170m). Two financial investors, Temasek Holdings and Unigrains, and minority shareholder Tereos subscribed to a capital increase of the group's malting subsidiary. Temasek, one of the world’s biggest state investors, has a portfolio of around $180 billion, mainly focused on Singapore and Asia in sectors ranging from telecoms to real estate, transport, financial services, health and agriculture.
"The involvement of investors focused on emerging markets will be a concrete advantage as we take our growth projects forward. Singapore-headquartered Temasek, and Unigrains, specialized in the agri-food sector, bring proven expertise on the valorization of our malt business and in accessing international markets, most notably in Asia", said Boortmalt CEO Yvan Schaepman in July.
Boortmalt currently operates 10 malting plants in Europe spread in seven countries and is by its own account with a yearly malting capacity of 1.1 million tons the 5th largest malt producer in the world. The company said the new investment was another progressive step forward for Boortmalt in its ambition to become Masters of Malt.
