Ballyrashane Creamery was established in 1894 by two local ministers and today it operates as a cooperative, with more than 100 farmers bringing their milk to the plant for processing.
Each day the business produces 100,000 litres of milk, 100 tonnes of butter and eight tonnes of speciality cheese with products sold locally and also as far away as the Falkland Islands and Malaysia. Ballyrashane Creamery made the switch to natural gas from heavy fuel oil in 2010 to take advantage of the cost and environmental savings that could be made.
“We pride ourselves on being a responsible company and so using a greener fuel was very important to us. By moving to natural gas, we have significantly reduced our carbon footprint emissions.”
Ian Campbell, operations manager for Ballyrashane Creamery
Ballyrashane Creamery’s Environmental Savings
- 1817 tonnes of CO2 emissions since 2010, which is equivalent to;
- 598 family-sized cars being taken off the road
- Filling 404 Olympic size swimming pools
Switching to natural gas
As a food producer, Ballyrashane Creameries is a major energy user and it was important for the company to have the most environmentally-friendly and economically advantageous fuel option. By switching to natural gas from heavy fuel oil, Ballyrashane lowered fuel costs immediately and began to reap the other benefits of being a firmus energy business customer, such as forecasting information, online bill management and a dedicated customer service representative. In addition to reducing the operating costs of the facility, making it more competitive, the substantial environmental savings accrued by Ballyrashane Creameries have also significantly reduced the company’s impact on the environment.
“As energy costs are one of our main outlays it was essential that we chose a fuel which was energy and cost efficient, and so connecting to natural gas provided important financial savings. Natural gas has helped us to reduce our carbon footprint which has allowed us to pass on a greener product to our customers.”
Ian Campbell
Ballyrashane now has a more efficient fuel to use in the pasteurisation of our products and steam generation as well as boilers which are operating at more than 90% efficiency, minimising the amount of energy that is wasted. The temperature of the plant is also more controllable which ensures the consistent high standard and quality of the Creamery’s final products.
Benefits of natural gas for large businesses
- Cost-saving
- Dedicated Key Account Manager
- Tailored energy solutions for specific industry needs
- Set-term pricing allowing for more accurate budgeting
- Monthly energy index and daily pricing reports offer up to date market intelligence
- Online Account Management and Billing gives customers 24/7 control on their energy usage
- Energy efficient
- Environmentally-friendly
- Space-saving as there is no requirement for a fuel storage area
