IDB buys German wing of Dairygold

The Irish Dairy Board has acquired the trade and assets of Dairygold’s niche European retail cheese business in Germany.

The cheese business is part of the Dairygold Deutschland business, which is based in Mainz in Germany.

The business markets a range of cheddar and farm house variety cheeses to retailers in the German market, as well as to neighbouring countries, under the Irish Land brand and through private label.

As part of the transaction, the IDB has also acquired the Irish Land brand.

Dairygold Deutschland will continue to operate the German cheese business for a transitional period up until March 31, 2015.

Dairygold says that the transition will allow the north Cork dairy co-op to focus on the emerging post-quota opportunities in its core business-to-business activity within dairy ingredients and its Cheese Solutions business in mainland Europe developed through the German office.

The acquisition further extends the IDB’s European cheese product offering and leverages the growth opportunity of the Irish Land brand through the scale of IDB’s retail operations.

Much of the IDB’s expanding dairy output will be developed at its centre of excellence for butter production and packing, adjacent to Dairygold’s new processing complex at Castlefarm, Mitchelstown, Co Cork.