Tributes paid to co-operatives pioneer Brennan

TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to Reddy Brennan, the former group managing director of Avonmore Creameries, who has died.

He played a key role in developing Avonmore, which merged with Waterford Co-op in 1997 (13 years after he retired) to form what is now global food firm Glanbia.

Mr Brennan, 85, a native of Hugginstown, Co Kilkenny, served as manager of Muckalee Co-op before being appointed in 1966 as group managing director of Avonmore, which was then a loose federation of co-op creameries. He succeeded in bringing 36 independent co-ops from Tipperary, Kilkenny, Laois and Kildare together with Unigate to build a milk processing plant in Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny, for butter and skim milk powder.