The Seiler Käserei cheese dairy is expanding its storage capacities in Giswil. Since April 2021, a new cheese warehouse has been under construction next to the dairy building, as was reported in an article in the Luzerner Zeitung newspaper. The first phase created capacity for 40,000 wheels and recently went into operation. Once complete, there will be space to store 80,000 wheels of cheese overall. For this, the Seiler Käserei dairy is investing around 6 million francs in Giswil.
A robot will be employed to carry out all the necessary work on the cheeses. According to Felix Schibli, it can deal with up to 700 wheels per hour. The CEO of the Seiler Käserei explained that the company will be covering around ten percent of its own electricity use via solar panels on the roof of the new warehouse.
The dairy had moved within Obwalden from Sarnen to Giswil as recently as 2018 so it would have more space. “With investment of around 20 million francs, a modern cheese dairy was built, which we moved into in December 2018,” said Schibli. Here, the company produces “up to 1,056 wheels of cheese” each day based on a “daily milk capacity of 80,000 liters from farms in Obwalden and Nidwalden”.
The company’s largest cheese warehouse in a former military tunnel under the Giswilerstock mountain can house around 90,000 wheels. “We will continue to use this tunnel, but expanding our storage capacity was becoming a matter of urgency,” said Schibli.
