Dairygold chief rejects ‘resign’ call
Mr Henchy said that when he took on the chief executive’s job last year he knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The business was in a loss-making dilemma.
It was faced with rising costs and falling margins in almost every area and it was on course to deliver annual losses of €26 million a year by 2007, and rising, if determined action to save the business from certain failure was not undertaken.
“If I thought the job depended on popularity stakes I wouldn’t have taken it. I joined Dairygold to lead a committed management team to do a specific job - firstly to ensure the co-op’s survival and secondly to transform it into a world-class business capable of competing with the very best.
“This requires hard and often painful decisions - but we do not have choices in these. We either make these decisions now or watch the business fail in a short few years. The decisions which have been taken and those that will be taken, will be the right business decisions for Dairygold.”
Mr Henchy said he was not in the business of failure and nor was Dairygold Co-op. The livelihoods of many thousands of people depend on their success and they must succeed to ensure survival.
TD Ned O’Keeffe earlier accused the co-op of making wild decisions and pursuing policies that were bringing misery to farmers and workers. He warned that nothing would be left in Dairygold shortly if somebody did not shout stop.
“I would call on the chief executive to resign,” he said, claiming there was no justification for the co-op’s latest decision to end pig slaughtering and boning operations in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, and to close its processing plant in Roscrea, Co Tipperary.
Mitchelstown Business Association last night called on the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to intervene and save the town that was once deemed the proud centre of the Irish food industry.
Meanwhile, the Irish Farmers Association has called a national pig producer rally in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, Abbeyleix, Co Laois, at 2pm this afternoon to discuss the pig production industry and the Dairygold cuts.
