Tirlán chair John Murphy envisages further co-operation between Irish co-ops, but in the short term at least, he predicted at Dairy Day that this would happen with the milk pool rather than mergers between the different co-ops.
“I wouldn’t see three or four co-ops, but I would see three or four milk pools. I would imagine the co-ops would, as Carbery have done, do their own thing, keep their own investments and the core business.”
Saying that Tirlán’s door would be open to any other co-op, he added: “We all work very close together and there’s an awful lot more co-operation between the co-ops than people actually realise.”
The comments were made during the ‘Future of the co-op movement’ panel at Dairy Day, which had the chairs of six different co-ops participating. With the consolidation occurring with co-ops across the globe, change was inevitable here too, he felt.
“We can’t ignore the completive landscape and what’s happening around the world. When you see Arla and DMK merging this year across multiple states, you see FrieslandCampina with something similar. The customer has gone global as well.”
Doing the right thing
As chairs of the various co-ops, he said they were all here doing the right thing for their farmer suppliers and further co-operation was a huge opportunity for Irish farmers and the co-op movement.
“There’s no question we’re going to have to change our model in Ireland, but it’s going to come from a position of strength, this time. I see the Carbery model as the five-star model.
"You still have the four co-ops, but they’ve come together and have one milk pool.”
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