Cantwell's Court dairy farm in Kilkenny sold

Northern Ireland based Roebuck Food Group plc has sold its dairy business for €1.45m.

The dairy business referred to is a leased dairy farm of 183ha – held on a number of occupational leases, milking close to 500 cows and was sold last week.

The farm, Cantwell's Court dairy farm, is well known locally around Kilkenny as a relatively new farm that Roebuck CEO Kieran Mahon was involved with for a number of years. Kieran is well known from his extensive agri experience having previously worked with Kepak, IFI, the Irish Farmers Journal, and Food Research at Davy.

The farm had been involved with researching and producing A2 milk as a potential niche play within the wider dairy commodity business.

The statement from Roebuck said that “following the settlement of indebtedness and the operation of a completion accounts adjustment mechanism in the share purchase agreement, this will result in a consideration receivable by the company of approximately €1.3m”.

Dairy division

The sale means the dairy division of Roebuck will now focus on milling, importation of food and ingredients and product sourcing only. For the year ended 31 December 2023 the dairy division generated revenue of €1.6m, loss after tax of €0.5m, and had net assets of €1.44m.

At the announcement of its annual results at the end of March Roebuck Group said revenue decreased by 15% to €31.3m (£26.7m) (2022: £31.4m). Operating profit from continuing operations declined from €394,000 (£336,000) to a loss of €1.9m (£1.66m) in the period under review. The loss for the financial year from continuing operations amounted to €2.17m (£1.85m). This compared to a profit of €183,000 (£156,000) in the prior year.