As one of the largest poultry processors on the island of Ireland, Western Brand has finalized a major expansion project in collaboration with Petersime at its Cappoquin location. After transforming the original industrial building into a modern broiler hatchery a decade ago, the company has gradually grown to reach a total production capacity of 60 million hatching eggs per year.
Western Brand: 65 years of poultry expertise
Founded by the Lannon family back in 1954, Western Brand Group has grown to be the largest family-owned poultry processing company in the Republic of Ireland. Besides a hatchery for broiler chicken production, the business also owns broiler farms and works with farmers throughout the country.
In 2009, Western Brand established a single-stage hatchery in Cappoquin, County Waterford in South East Ireland. The original old-style building was redesigned to fit a modern and biosecure hatchery, which started with a small capacity of 9 BioStreamer™ setters, good to hatch 18 million day-old chicks per year.
Western Brand systematically upgraded the hatchery with more Petersime incubators and hatchery equipment in the past 11 years. This process required the flexibility to optimize the hatchery flows in different project stages.
Petersime is best bet for high-quality technology and service
The latest step of the expansion at Western Brand was completed in the spring of 2020. Today, the hatchery is fully automated and equipped with 30 BioStreamer™ 24S setters and 18 BioStreamer™ 8H hatchers, as well as an HVAC installation custom-built by Petersime.
The project was divided into 7 phases over the past decade. From the start-up through to commissioning, Western Brand has been most satisfied about the technical and incubational support offered by Petersime’s experts to optimize the hatchery’s results.
“Petersime has been a responsible and reliable partner throughout the years, not only during the different installations, but also in between. The technical experts and incubation specialists have been instrumental in achieving Western Brand's goal to produce the highest possible quality chicks,” commented Mr Diarmaid Kirby, Agricultural Director at Western Brand.