Glanbia said the popularity of health and sports nutrition products such as whey protein powder will fuel growth in the coming months, as its global cheese production helped raise its revenues almost 10% to over €2bn in its first half results.

The boss of Glanbia has called for “as long a transition period as possible” following Brexit if current trading conditions between Ireland and the UK cannot be maintained.

Farmers have given a cautious welcome to Glanbia’s plan to sell 60% of its Irish dairy business to Glanbia Co-op, creating a new Glanbia Ireland joint venture in a deal worth €112m.

Dairy farmers have condemned co-ops for cutting June milk prices, despite stable pricing at Ornua, the major buyer of Irish dairy produce.

As world dairy markets continue to recover, the industry in Ireland has gone in the other direction, cutting peak supply milk prices.

More and more companies are benefiting from lower borrowing costs by issuing bonds.

Glanbia Co-op has launched a €55m scheme that will provide interest-free cash to its suppliers when milk and grain prices are weak.

ICMSA has called for every dairy farmer in the EU to be offered at least 10c for every litre of milk less they produce in 2016, compared to 2015.

Milk processors are warning that a typical dairy farmer could take a €30,000 income hit this year due to low milk prices.

An international milk price comparison shows Dairygold Co-op paying more for milk in February than Glanbia or Kerry, in contrast to Irish milk price leagues which show it paying a lower price.

Wexford Milk Producers (WMP) co-op members have voted to sell Wexford Creamery to Glanbia Ingredients Ireland.

Siobhan Talbot is set to succeed John Moloney as group managing director of Glanbia, at the end of this year — becoming the first woman to head up a major Irish food company.

Motorists are asked to be patient this weekend as agri co-op trucks deliver urgently needed hay and other animal feed to farms nationwide.

A strong performance by Glanbia’s nutritional division drove the food producer’s profits before tax to €198.8m as 16,000 farmers are set to receive a windfall of almost 9m plc shares today.

Glanbia co-op has completed a 3% placing in Glanbia Plc.

Markets recovered somewhat from Wednesday’s losses as the Greek bailout saga continued. The Iseq Index climbed a further 31.8 points to 3300.7.

Farmers will take majority control of Ireland’s largest dairy ingredients processor this week, following Glanbia Plc’s approval of the purchase of some 60% of its Dairy Ingredients Ireland company by Glanbia Co-op.

Members of Glanbia Co-op are already starting to focus on how they will manage their evolved milk processing responsibilities after their massive vote in favour of the Plc’s joint venture proposal.

Market analysts have concurred with Glanbia’s view that a successful international growth strategy, coupled with the likely spinoff of its Irish dairy business to co-op members, will see a growth in its annual adjusted earnings per share.

Glanbia has reached initial agreement with its majority shareholder — Glanbia Co-operative Society — regarding the future ownership of its dairy ingredients processing unit.

A proposal to spin off the company’s domestic dairy operation is likely to get the green light, which should facilitate the expansion of the processing sector in Ireland in advance of EU milk quota abolition in 2015, reports Kyran Fitzgerald

A3 shareholders don’t have any Glanbia Co-op voting rights.

Senior executives of Dairygold and Glanbia have been elected to the roles of president and vice-president of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS).

A contribution of two cent per litre on forecast growth milk volumes for five years from 2015 is being proposed to Glanbia milk suppliers, as part of a milk supply agreement plan from 2015.

Glanbia is set to buy the IDA’s greenfield site at Belview, Co Kilkenny, as part of its plans to expand its milk processing capacity.

Glanbia Plc will not be in position to announce its plans to handle the increased milk production after the EU milk quota system ends in 2015 until the end of June.

GLANBIA, the international nutritionals-to-cheese group, said the growth of 2010 has been sustained into this year and it is sticking to its earlier adjusted earnings per share forecast of 11%-13% for the year on a constant currency basis.