Dairygold to make €9m investment

Dairygold is to undertake a €9 million capital investment at its Galtee plant in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, to expand production and improve efficiency.

The co-op has also predicted its consumer foods operation at the complex now faces a much brighter future.

This follows a vote by staff in support of an agreement on a new pay and work practices structure.

Dairygold said the deal was agreed between the company and union representatives at the Labour Relations Commission and was accepted by staff in a ballot last month.

Division director, Donal McCarthy, said staff approval of the deal will have very positive implications for the scale of future operations at the Mitchelstown facility.

The agreement will bring processes and procedures at this loss-making plant into line with best practice in the industry to allow it to become competitive again, he said.

Dairygold chief executive Jerry Henchy has meanwhile been conferred with an honorary doctorate of business administration by the International Management Centres Association in Cambridge.

Other Irish food industry leaders previously awarded similar honours by the IMCA include Sir Anthony O’Reilly and Denis Brosnan.

Mr Henchy has been chief executive of Dairygold since 2003, having served as a manager with the Kerry Group in South America, Mexico and Central America.

In the last two-and-half years he has led a radical transformation of the Dairygold business.