Future is not as bleak as it seems

Plans to axe up to 2,000 jobs at Dairygold Co-op as part of a three-year rationalisation programme may seem drastic, but this does not mean that all of those jobs will be gone.

The transportation aspect of operations will be outsourced, which means that the jobs will still be there, but they will be managed by a specialised transport company, possibly set up by those currently employed by the co-op.

There have been suggestions that Jerry Henchy, the new chief executive of Dairygold, was painting the blackest picture possible in order to shock people into facing reality. That is a tactic adopted at the outset of making radical changes.