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The Kanturk-based North Cork Co-op has notified the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of its acquisition of Newtownsandes Co-op.
Kerry stopped processing Newtownsandes milk in March 2018 and with no processing facilities of its own, the co-op turned to North Cork Co-op and Tipperary Co-op to process its milk.
The decision by Kerry meant that Newtownsandes management had to explore their options to help process their 23m litre milk pool.
Accountancy firm Moore Stephens was appointed to assess merger options last year.
Close ties
North Cork and Newtownsandes are geographically close and the acquisition will be seen as a natural choice for North Cork.
It processed 20% more milk in 2017 – 215m litres – and has contracts in place to process milk on behalf of Feale Bridge and Headley Bridge, Boherbue, LLMP, Lee Strand and Dairygold.
In February this year, it announced it would be merging with Feale Bridge and Headley Bridge Co-op.
North Cork Co-op CEO Pat Sheahan previously stated: “We are a niche value-added processor and while we may not have scale like others, we believe there is a role for processors with 2t to 3t driers.”
He added that “we have the capability to do smaller niche batches where larger processors may not be most efficient to do this”.
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