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Lakeland chair Alo Duffy has said the merger of Lakeland and LacPatrick co-ops which was approved this week will enable “the best possible milk price” to be paid to the new entity’s suppliers.
After four months of deliberation, competition authorities on both sides of the Irish border approved the merger on Tuesday.
The new venture now has a combined milk pool of close to 1.8bn litres, making it the second largest buyer of milk on the island of Ireland.
The new co-op takes over from Dale Farm as the largest buyer of milk in Northern Ireland, and will account for almost half of all milk produced north of the border.
Trading
Set to rebrand as Lakeland Dairies Co-Operative Society Limited the co-op will begin trading by the end of March once a number of legal procedures have been implemented.
Both co-ops will operate independently until then and set their own milk prices.
Existing Lakeland shareholders will have 73% ownership in the new co-op, with LacPatrick shareholders taking the remaining 27%.
“The whole purpose of the merger was to enable the best possible milk price to suppliers, from day one that has been the objective,” Duffy told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Duffy added that the extra milk volume created by the new entity would enable greater efficiencies and lead to a more competitive milk price.
Current CEO of Lakeland, Michael Hanley, is set to assume the role of CEO of the new co-op. He expressed hope that the combined business will become a powerhouse of global dairy trade.
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