Glanbia’s results for the first six months of 2025 showed an increase in revenue to $1.93bn(€1.65bn), while earnings per share declined to $0.63(€0.54) as margins were reduced due to the high price of whey, a key input for the company’s nutrition brand.

The company had highlighted the high whey prices when it announced its full-year 2024 results, news which saw more than a quarter of the value wiped of the company’s shares. This week’s update has seen a significant recovery of that loss, with shares trading above €14 at time of going to press, less than 5% below the level seen before the warning on whey prices.

On whey price outlook, Glanbia CEO Hugh McGuire told the Irish Farmers Journal that further supply is coming online and that the company has started sourcing from a new supplier in the US in recent months. He added that the company had secured its whey needs until the first quarter of 2026.

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Stand alone

From the start of July, Glanbia’s US dairy business has been established as a stand-alone division, with its own management in place. McGuire said the rationale for the change has been to simplify the structure of Glanbia, to help investors understand the company better, but also to allow management of the different divisions – health and nutrition, performance nutrition, and dairy nutrition – to better concentrate on their own businesses. When asked by the Irish Farmers Journal if the new structure was to facilitate a sale of the Dairy Division, McGuire said “not at all”.

The company acquired Sweetmix, a Brazil-based nutritional premix and ingredients solution business this year and has agreed the sale of Body & Fit, its European direct-to-consumer e-commerce business. McGuire said that there has been interest in the company’s Slimfast business which remains for sale.

Shareholders

Tirlán completed the spinout of 15m Glanbia shares to its members in early May when the share price was at €11.50. The rise in shares following the announcement of the half-year results means that those 15m are now worth €37.5m more than they were at the time of the spinout. The rise in the shareprice will provide some relief for those shareholders, as well as for Tirlán which retains just over 60m shares in Glanbia.

The company has also seen recent interest from institutional investors, with London-based Silchester International Investors taking a 3% stake in the company ahead of the announcement of the half-year results.

Glanbia will pay an interim dividend of 17.2c/share and confirmed that another €50m share buyback will commence once the current €50m programme is completed.

Glanbia also announced that Paul Duffy will take over as chair of the company from 1 January next, following the retirement of Donard Gaynor, who has held the position since 2020. Duffy is former chair and CEO of Pernod Ricard North America and was previously chair and CEO of Irish Distillers.