Profits of E5.2m for Lakeland Dairies
The improved turnover was attributed to organic business growth plus a five-month contribution from LE Pritchitt and Co, the major dairy food service firm which Lakeland acquired during the year. It also reflects a full year’s operation by the Bailieboro Foods and Nestlé Omagh businesses acquired by Lakeland in the previous year.
Lakeland Dairies operates across 15 counties on a cross-Border basis, processing more than 700 million litres of milk annually at several major facilities. Some 450m litres is sourced from the Republic and 250m from Northern Ireland. Chief executive Ed Prendergast said the results were satisfactory bearing in mind the variable levels of demand which existed for dairy stocks in volatile international markets.
“Lakeland has continued its transformation towards world class competitiveness, through gains in efficiency, investments, acquisitions and ongoing consolidation.
“We are beginning to see the benefits of this process in terms of our plant utilisation, processing throughput and significant new business development opportunities.” Turnover in the dairy division of E354m increased by E75m on the previous year, bolstered by new contract wins and revenues from acquired operations. The agri trading division performed strongly with turnover of E57m.
Mr Prendergast said Lakeland Dairies was equipping itself with the resources, skills and advanced processing capabilities required to drive further growth and development in its business. He also signalled the establishment of a new food service operating division marking the co-op’s expanding position at the forefront of this sector of the dairy industry.
“Every single day, well over two-million people pick up and consume a food service dairy product made by Lakeland Dairies, processed from high quality milk produced in the cross border region.
“To further exploit this potential, we have geared up our food service capability very significantly to the extent that this will in future form a specific division of our operations,” he said.
Mr Prendergast said the food service aspect of Lakeland’s business has the potential to realise revenues in excess of E100m per annum in the coming years.
Among the group’s other significant activities are the manufacture of HB Ice Cream for Unilever and the provision of cream to Diageo for Bailey’s Irish Cream.
