AVONMORE Foods has formed a strategic alliance to market pizza cheese outside Europe and the US with Mid America Dairymen, the largest American dairy co op. The alliance will eventually be extended to include other, products, but a closer relationship is not envisaged at this stage, according to an Avonmore spokesman.

The two will establish a joint venture company, but will not be investing directly in each other, explained the spokesman. The name and location of the new company has yet to be decided, and at present executives from both organisations are being seconded to establish it.

The investment in the new company is not significant in terms of the size of the two companies, according to a spokesman for Avonmore.

The market for pizza cheese outside the US is expected to grow by up to 20 per cent over the next 10 years. The joint venture will concentrate on selling cheese in central Europe and the Pacific Rim initially, according to the Avonmore spokesman. It will then took at the central and south American markets as well as Australia, he added.

Avonmore declined to give sales targets for the new venture.

Springfield, Missouri based Mid America Dairymen (MidAm) is roughly twice the size of Avonmore with a turnover of £2.3 billion in 1995. It is owned by 18,000 members and is the second largest pizza cheese manufacturer in the world, with six dedicated plants.

Mid Am has another 29 dairy plants in the US and also has invested in facilities in Mexico and the Czech Republic. It handles two billion gallons of milk a year and markets more than 226,000 tonnes of cheese.

Avonmore has five pizza cheese plants and is the leading European supplier. It had a turnover of £1.2 billion last year and sales of cheese topped 130,000 tonnes.

The two companies intend to be the world's leading pizza cheese manufacturer, according to Avonmore's chief executive, Mr Pat O'Neill.