Dairygold has outlined plans to invest about €117m in its dairy processing units at Mallow and Mitchelstown in County Cork, Ireland.

The development is expected to create about 115 full-time jobs by 2020 and 400 temporary construction jobs.

Ireland Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Minister Richard Bruton said: "We have devised a modular expansion plan that allows additional milk processing capacity to come on-stream if and when needed.

"Today’s €117m investment announcement, supported by my department through Enterprise Ireland, is a massive statement of Dairygold’s post-quota ambitions and of their innovation capability."

The dairy quotas imposed by the EU will be relaxed from next April allowing for free production of milk. Dairygold’s 3,000 milk suppliers have projected a 60% increase in production by 2020.

Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe said: "At the heart of our post-quota strategy is our new milk supply agreement between our milk suppliers and the society.

"The milk forecasting element of this agreement gives Dairygold visibility of milk supply volumes for a number of years into the future.

"Therefore we have devised a modular expansion plan that allows additional milk processing capacity to come on-stream if and when needed. We expect to make additional investments in Mallow in the coming years to cater for our members’ further milk expansion."

The project is currently in its planning stage and the company is expected to make further announcements in the coming months.

In 2013, Dairygold processed more than 960 million litres of milk.