NI dairy co-op Dale Farm saw its net assets increase by over 18% in the year ending 31 March 2025, taking those shareholder funds to a total of £175.3m, up from £148.1m in the previous 12 months.

The figures are included in the recently published Dale Farm annual report, which provides an in-depth analysis of performance in the last financial year – the published data goes well beyond the headline profit figures normally released in early summer.

Those headline figures showed the co-op made an operating profit of £37.7m, which was up marginally on the £37.5m from the previous year. Rising dairy commodity prices saw turnover up 14% to £722.4m, leaving operating profit margin at a very healthy 5.2%.

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Approximately 90% of Dale Farm turnover comes from the sale of dairy products, with the remaining £76.6m generated by feed sales within the United Feeds business.

Nearly two-thirds of all sales are sales are within the UK.

In total, 1,074 people are employed across the Dale Farm group of companies.

Processed

In the last financial year, Dale Farm collected and processed 984m litres of milk from approximately 1,300 members, to include around 50 suppliers in Britain. Those suppliers came with the purchase of a processing site in Kendal in 2004, which mainly specialised in desserts and cottage cheese.

That site, along with the Rowan Glen yoghurt processing facility in Scotland, were closed by Dale Farm in 2022, although it retains the Ash Manor cheese packing business in Wales. In recent years, the co-op has invested in cheddar cheese at Dunmanbridge in Cookstown, producing 62,488t in the last financial year.

NI suppliers

The 1,235 Dale Farm suppliers in NI produced an average of 758,750l per farm to the end of March 2025, up over 6% on the previous year. Over the 12-month period there were 38 retirees from dairy farming, 13 new entrants and 11 new suppliers to the business.

Farmers received an average milk price of 43.67p/l after transport costs and to include a 0.5p/l 13th payment.