Glanbia Ireland, which was created in July last year after shareholders in Glanbia co-op voted to purchase 60% of the consumer foods and agribusiness division from Glanbia plc, has reported profits (EBIT) of €61m for its 2017 financial year. Profit margins in the business were 3.5% last year.

Glanbia Ireland recorded total sales of €1.75bn last year, with €1.1bn, or almost two-thirds (63%), of sales derived from the company’s ingredients division. Jim Bergin, chief executive of Glanbia Ireland, said ingredients sales increased a massive 34% last year due to a 9% rise in sales volumes and a 24% rise in dairy ingredient prices.

Sales from Glanbia Ireland’s consumer foods business, which includes the Avonmore brand, were close to €300m last year. The company said its line of value-added milk products such as Mooju, SuperMilk and Protein Milk saw strong sales growth of 7% last year.

Agribusiness division

Glanbia Ireland’s agribusiness division, which comprises its animal feed and fertiliser business, recorded sales of €350m in 2017. The company said sales of dairy feeds increased 24% in the year, which was driven by an autumn bonus of €24/t on feed purchases.

Glanbia Ireland said it purchased almost 190,000t of green grain from Irish farmer during last year’s harvest, with almost 40% of this grain attracting some level of premium or bonus. The company says this is worth almost €2m to contracted growers.

During the year, net debt increased by €84m, or more than 40%, to stand at €287m at year end. This was due to capital investments, with €67m invested in processing assets.

Glanbia Ireland said its farmer suppliers delivered almost 2.6bn litres of milk in 2017, a 9% increase on the previous year. The volume of milk processed at Belview increased 15% last year to 529m litres. Glanbia Ireland said almost three-quarters (74%) of its farmers increased supply last year.