Shareholders in LacPatrick Co-op have voted overwhelmingly in favour of new council and board structures at a special general meeting held in Armagh earlier this week.

The new structures, approved by 91% of shareholders at the meeting, were originally drawn up by a sub-committee of the board, but did not receive the necessary 66% majority when first put to shareholders in February.

After re-visiting their plans, the latest proposals have now been accepted.

As part of the new structure, the board will be reduced from 25 members to 16, drawn from a new 60-member council formed from four electoral areas. These electoral areas will each elect members to the new council from supplying shareholders in their own area.

The number elected is based on the number of suppliers in the area, with Cavan/Monaghan electing 20, Derry/Antrim 18, Down/Armagh 11 and Tyrone/Fermanagh 11.

It is the role of newly elected council members to deal with membership/share issues and disseminate information to suppliers.

The new board, drawn from the 60-member council, will take effect from September 2017.

Existing suppliers

In the last year LacPatrick has welcomed 350 new members into the society as shareholders, mostly existing suppliers from NI, who previously supplied without a contract.

Commenting after the meeting this week, LacPatrick chair Hugo Maguire said: “LacPatrick Co-operative Society can now look forward with confidence that it has an appropriate governance structure in place to complement the size and ambition of its base of suppliers.”