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With the merger deal complete with LacPatrick, Lakeland Dairies has a new 23-member transitional board in place for the next 12 months.
The chair of the pre-merger Lakeland board, Alo Duffy, has been elected as chair of the new board, with Tyrone farmer Colin Kelso taking on the role of vice-chair (a position he held in Lakeland pre-merger). Kelso’s fellow vice-chair is Tyrone farmer Alan McCay.
McCay was a LacPatrick supplier and board member, and is one of eight former LacPatrick board members on the new Lakeland board.
He is joined by former LacPatrick chair Andrew McConkey, and former LacPatrick vice-chairs Keith Agnew and Robert Skelton.
Bonus
Despite LacPatrick no longer operating as a standalone dairy co-op, the row over the decision not to pay a winter bonus last October still rumbles on.
In a statement released this week, Farmers For Action (FFA) in NI suggested that former LacPatrick suppliers should contact Lakeland asking for this bonus to be paid.
“FFA will watch with interest to see if Lakeland plays fair on this issue,” notes the statement.
It is also understood that up to 15 former LacPatrick suppliers threatened legal action earlier this year over the unpaid October bonus.
However, LacPatrick insisted that it paid as much as it could, and to ensure the co-op survived until the merger with Lakeland was complete.
In the end, it paid a bonus of 2p/l on November and December supplies, compared with a 2p/l bonus from October to December in 2017.
In the Republic of Ireland, LacPatrick suppliers received a similar bonus of 2c/l, paid as an ‘early calving bonus’ on January and February 2019 supplies. Last year, that bonus was set at 3c/l.
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