Dairygold Co-op saw a slight decline in profits in its UK business for 2016. Accounts for Dairygold Food Ingredients UK show the business recorded a 3% decline in operating profits in 2016 to £1.3m (€1.5m), as profit margins fell slightly to 1.6%. Dairygold said this was a result of a small increase in operating costs for the year.

The business recorded a 2% increase in sales to £84.5m (€96m), primarily as a result of increased sales volumes. Pre-tax profits were back 23% to €0.8m.

Dairygold operates from two facilities in the UK, located in Leeds and Crewe, supplying formatted cheese solutions to the UK’s ready-meals and food-manufacturing sectors. The co-op has invested over €1.5m expanding capacity at both sites in recent years. “The Leeds facility is the largest soft cheese manufacturing site in the UK, while the Crewe facility is able to process close to 25,000t of cheese per annum. Dairygold’s UK food ingredients business accounts for about 12% of total sales.”