North Cork Co-op and Dairygold cease merger talks
North Cork Co-op members met in their Kanturk headquarters in the past week to consider the approach from Dairygold, which is seeking to boost its supply in line with post-quota growth ambitions. The Kanturk group voted comprehensively against merging their interests with Dairygold.
A spokesperson for North Cork Co-op confirmed the society would not be merging with Dairygold. It is believed the Kanturk group is confident its neighbouring co-op will not approach individual members to switch their supply over to the Mitchels-town group.
A Dairygold spokesperson said: “Exploratory discussions between the two neighbouring dairy co-operatives took place against the backdrop of long-standing co-operation and interaction between them, including looking at the potential for a combination of the two societies. A decision has now been taken by North Cork not to pursue this discussion further. Dairygold acknowledges and fully respects this decision and looks forward to continuing to work with North Cork in its current business relationships.”
North Cork Co-op last year invested €5m in a new production plant, with its 130 producers projecting milk output increases of around 25%-30% on its current annual supply of nearly 100m litres.
Dairygold last year began work on two new developments, with a total €117m investment in this phase.
