Farmer-owned co-op Fane Valley saw its operating profit virtually unchanged at £10.39m in the 12 months to 30 September 2024, its latest accounts published online show.

The Fane Valley group of companies did see turnover drop 8% in the last year to £315.9m, with that reduction mainly attributed to the falling value of commodities over the period. However, with turnover down slightly, but profit levels being held, it meant operating profit margin increased from 3% to a reasonably healthy 3.29%. In total, the group has net assets of £154.1m, up 3.8% and employs 854 people across a number of sites.

Investment

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The turnover and profit figures to September 2024 do not include a contribution from the share that the co-op now has in Ready Egg Products, with that deal completed in May 2024, mid-way through the financial year. However, there is £2.71m added into the profit and loss account which is the co-op’s share of profit from that entity after tax.

The move into eggs was the largest ever single investment by Fane Valley and probably marks the end of a process where the co-op has exited out of milk drying (Armaghdown) and meat processing (Linden Food Group) and into higher margin businesses.

The Fane Valley accounts show the co-op spent £59.27m on the “purchase of investments” in the last financial year.

The deal for Ready Eggs saw Fane Valley buy out the shares held by Greenfield Foods Ltd and Shane and Declan Kerrigan, creating a joint venture with Lough Erne Investments Ltd, owned by Fermanagh businessman Charles Crawford.

Crawford was the founder and managing director of Ready Egg Products. In April 2022, Ready Eggs had undergone significant expansion with the acquisition of the Skea Eggs business outside Dungannon.

The latest accounts for both Skea Eggs and the Ready Egg Products Ltd business show both companies are delivering high returns. Their combined turnover in the nine months to 30 September 2024 was nearly £209m, with operating profits of £16.59m and a very healthy profit margin of 8%.

NI turnover

Outside of egg processing, in the year to 30 September Fane Valley generated around two-thirds of its turnover in NI, with the remaining one third in the Republic of Ireland.

Around half of that NI turnover is from Fane Valley Feeds which had a successful year to September 2024. Despite feed prices being down 18%, turnover was held at £105.6m on the back of a 16% increase in volumes, including a 25% increase in poultry feed. Operating profits rose from £3.6m to £4.4m, with profit margin at 4.2%.

The other main business in NI is Fane Valley stores. It was impacted by poor autumn weather in 2023 and a late spring in 2024, with sales down 7% to £69.7m and operating profit down from £2.6m to £1.8m.

Fane Valley also owns two reasonably small meat processors in NI which tend to specialise in fats and offals (Duncrue Food Processors and Hilton Meats), as well as the White’s Speedicook business in Co Armagh.

Turnover in this oat processing business was down 5% in the last financial year to £19.2m and it has now recorded operating losses in each of the last two years. That is partly due to inefficiencies at its ageing plant at the main site in Tandragee. A second processing facility was opened in Moy during the last financial year.

ROI

In the Republic of Ireland, Fane Valley owns the Silver Hill Duck facility at Emyvale in Co Monaghan, which recorded turnover of €41m to September 2024. Planning approval for a new processing facility at Emyvale was approved last autumn.

The co-op also owns the Smyths Daleside feed business in Co Donegal, which had a turnover of €44.3m in the last financial year, and has a 50% share in the Co Meath-based agricultural merchant, Drummonds. In the 12 months to September 2024 Drummonds reported turnover down 29% at €60.9m, with the business significantly impacted by reduced crop planting in the autumn of 2023.