Newmarket Co-op set for €16.5m expansion
The €60 million a year turnover co-op was allocated €6.73 million in the dairy investment scheme, announced last year by Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan.
Chief Executive Michael Cronin said the aim is to make the business more efficient and to grow it over time, especially in the era of increasing milk quotas.
Newmarket pays one of the country’s top milk prices to its 160 dairy farmer milk suppliers. Last year, it topped the Irish Farmers Journal/KPMG audit of average milk prices.
Newmarket paid 26.44 cent per litre, for milk of 3.82% fat and 3.33% protein.
The co-op employs 125, and recently opened a new retail store in Newmarket. It also has close working relations with other co-ops.
Mr Cronin, who’s also chairman of the Irish Dairy Board, said he expects more of the co-operation, joint processing arrangements and other links, which have been the hallmarks of the processing industry in recent years.
“Smaller plants have the opportunity to develop into niche product areas, while it is a reality that plants producing commodity products must be scale efficient,” he said.
Mr Cronin said scale is not everything, however, and plants can be cost effective without being the largest.
Addressing the idea of Ireland having just one, maybe two or possibly three entities processing milk, he said Ireland’s competitors — processors, food ingredient customers and retailers — are consolidating. “We have, however, a unique structure in Ireland, where almost all processors are members of the Irish Dairy Board. We, therefore, have the potential to act with one voice in the market place,” he said.
