GEA wins multi-million contract to help build Turkey’s first ever infant nutritional formula plant

GEA has won a multi-million Euro contract from Turkey-based dairy manufacturer Gönenli Süt to supply the country’s first ever plant for producing powdered infant nutritional formula with state-of-the-art processing technology. The new facility in Akhisar, will produce high-quality infant nutritional formula for major global brands, reducing the country’s reliance on imports. Production capacity is expected to be 13,800 tonnes per year, with the plant scheduled to come on stream in March 2023.

With this investment, Gönenli Süt is entering into a new product segment. In June 2021, GEA was awarded the contract for the development, configuration, and supply of the infant milk powder processing part and for the supply of the technology to expand production for the already proven dairy products. “We are very proud to have been chosen by Gönenli Süt as their technology partner for this important step of entering the milk powder production market in Turkey”, says Ulrik Lund Jakobsen, CEO, GEA Powder & Thermal Separation Technologies.

Established in 2015 and headquartered in Istanbul, Gönenli Süt is one of Turkey’s major contract dairy manufacturers. GEA has worked with Gönenli since 2016 and is providing separator technology and equipment to process raw milk into cheese and UHT- (ultra-high temperature) and ESL- (extended shelf-life) milk for major global brands and for discount markets. Rapid growth in both domestic and international markets has meant that the existing plant could no longer meet demand. As well as offering the first domestic production of infant nutritional formula, the Akhisar facility will also expand Gönenli’s capacity for processing UHT- and ESL-milk for existing and new customers around the world.

“When it comes to the production of infant milk formula, where product safety and hygiene are of great importance, GEA is the company we trust. We worked with GEA Turkey on many processing lines in the past which all ended with satisfaction. We believe this project will also be a success story and milestone for Turkish dairy industry for not only infant formula, but also many nutrition products manufacturing”, complemented Zeki Sözen, President of Gönenli Süt.

GEA is world-renowned for its expertise and experience in the field of infant nutritional formula processing and over the last 20 years the company has configured more than 100 plants around the world. The GEA spray dryer and thermal vapor recompression evaporator systems tailored to the exact plant requirements will be instrumental to process the infant formula with precise nutritional and physical characteristics in a safe and reproducible way. GEA equipment is recognized worldwide for demonstrating the rigorous and exacting levels of hygiene and product safety required for producing dairy-based nutritional powders, including infant formula.