Carbery Group, the Cork-based ingredients, flavours and dairy company that owns the Dubliner cheese brand, saw its revenue climb 17pc to €536m last year while profits surged 12pc to just over €50m.

In late 2020, Carbery opened a new €78m facility at its plant in Ballineen in Co Cork that saw it start production of mozzarella and grilling cheese, while it focused in growing its cheese markets in Asia.

The 12pc growth in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came as the group also acquired Chicago-based Innova last year. Innova is an international flavours company.

Carbery is owned by four Cork co-ops – Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird.

It employs almost 900 people, and has 1,215 local farmer suppliers.

The group operates from 12 locations including Ireland, the UK, the USA, Brazil, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand and supplies more than 50 countries worldwide.

Chief executive Jason Hawkins welcomed the results.

“While our financial performance was solid, I would characterise 2021 as having a focus on investing for the future,” he noted.

“We saw the first full year of production in our new Ballineen cheese facility, while also bringing online expanded R&D facilities in the US, as well as our acquisition of US-based Innova Flavors in May 2021,” he added. “ This was a key strategic acquisition for us, expanding our savoury capabilities in the US for our customers, and adding new markets globally.”

The group said that its plant produced 63,000 tonnes of cheese last year, with 10,000 tonnes of that being mozzarella. It said that aside from expanding its presence in foreign markets, its brands also performed well in Ireland last year, citing a “strong retail performance”.

Online sales played a “key role” in lifting sales, it added.

The group is also involved in the infant and sports nutrition sectors, and has moved into the production of clinical products for customers in Europe and Asia.

“The nutrition team have also established targets and opportunities in the clinical nutrition sector in China, where they developed whey protein ingredients for specialised oral nutritional supplements with specific functional and nutritional requirements,” the group noted in results.

Mr Hawkins said the group, as with others, will face challenges in terms of energy costs and supply chain issues.