Lakeland Dairies is buying De Brandt Dairy International NV in Belgium.

The family-owned company, which specialises in the commercialisation of butter and butter oil, has had a long-standing relationship as a trading partner with Lakeland.

While there was no indication as to the size of the deal, Lakeland called the deal a "significant investment in value-added capacity" in which it will acquire De Brandt's customer base, as well as other key assets of the De Brandt butterfat business.

Strategic partner

De Brandt was a strategic partner with Ballyrashane Co-op in 2014 when the co-op announced its new 'high care' butter facility. At the time, De Brandt was selling around 80,000t of butter per year.

Subsequent to that, Ballyrashane merged with Town of Monaghan Co-op to form LacPatrick in 2015, with LacPatrick in turn merging with Lakeland Dairies in 2019. The strategic partnership with De Brandt continued throughout those changes.

De Brandt is a business-to-business trader selling butter products in bulk to customers.

It operates in the premium texturised butter market, which is a solution to requirements in the baking industry for best results in the preparation of pastries.

Speaking on the deal, Lakeland Dairies CEO Colin Kelly said that the acquisition gives the co-op "a firm foothold in new markets in Europe and beyond, enabling us to further grow and develop our world-class product offering for our current long-term and future new customers".