Carrick-on-Suir's Miloko plant closes after more than 70 years of dairy processing

Caption for picture above: The last remaining staff at Corman Miloko who gathered for a photo just before the plant’s closure. Back row from left:  James Parle, Paddy Hennebry, Martin O’Neill, Eddie Delaney, Ger Dunphy, Kevin O’Brien, Richie Lyons, Julie Hassett, Austin O’Meara, Joe Power, John Hickey, Albert Lonergan, Sammy Warren

Niall McCarthy, Vasyy, Will O’Toole. Seated front from left: Chris Bowles, Padraig Sheehan, Lorraine O’ Gorman, Didier Schillings, Oonagh Fitzgibbons, Seamus Butler, Sandra O’Neill. Picture Tom Grace 

Carrick-on-Suir’s Corman Miloko plant closed its doors for the last time last Friday (June 30) - bringing to an end more than 70 years of dairy processing at the factory. 

The last remaining staff at the plant, located off the N24 at Deerpark, Carrick-on-Suir, gathered on Wednesday, June 28,  for a photograph to commemorate the sad occasion. 

The closure of the dairy spreads and butterfats processing plant employing 31 people was announced in January by its joint owners Tirlán and Belgian company Corman. 

The company said at the time the closure was “a result of a reduction in the volume of business contracted at the facility in recent years and followed significant restructuring efforts to enable it to operate in a highly competitive marketplace”. The factory is now up for sale. 

Bidding  farewell to his workplace of 45 years last week was company engineer Padraig Sheehan from Carrick-on-Suir who started work there  at the age of 15. 

He said everyone who worked at Miloko had fond memories of the factory.  “It gave great, constant employment to people in Carrick-on-Suir and surrounding areas. It was always a lovely place to work,” he told The Nationalist.

Miloko was first established in 1949 as a co-operative society to make  chocolate crumb. It was the start of what was to eventually become Tirlán.  

Padraig said at its  peak  Miloko employed 120 people. He recalled when he was growing up in Carrick you were very popular among your friends if your father or another relative worked in Miloko as they brought home  supplies of  chocolate crumb. “It was a badge of honour if you had access to the chocolate,” he said. 

In the 1970s, under the ownership of Avonmore, it moved from manufacturing chocolate crumb to Casein processing and producing Mozzarella type cheese for pizzas  in the  UK market. 

The plant  diversified into producing dairy spreads in the 1980s.  Casein production ceased in  1997 while cheese production ceased  in 2006 when it became Corman Miloko Ireland Ltd. Under this venture, the plant processed and packed  dairy spreads for the European market and Kerrygold USA and technical butter for  croissants.

Picture below is Miloko staff outside the factory in its early days.