We really are into the agricultural public company share reporting season. First off was Glanbia. It wasn’t surprising that the Glanbia AGM, held in the FBD Killashee Hotel, finished in record time.

The Glanbia share price following the morning media briefing reached a record €19.

The new chairman, Paul Duffy referred to the strength of the business and the growth potential for their products.

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The almost-new chief executive Hugh McGuire was able to give a clean report to the meeting having sold the troublesome acquisition Slim Fast, though at a substantial but not unexpected loss.

Performance Nutrition, Glanbia’s key brand is, we were told, the world leader in its field – a field in an era of weight loss medicines that has seen a huge consumer demand for natural protein, and what is more natural than a protein product derived from natural milk? 

While everyone understandably welcomed the increase in the share price and profits after tax were up US$18.6 million at US$183 million, the earnings per share were down 3.6% due, we were told, to the unexpected and sustained rise in the price of whey.

Glanbia in the US produces a large amount of whey in its huge New Mexico cheese plant which is a partnership with the giant co-op, Dairy Farmers of America.

It may be a low margin business, as Hugh McGuire put it, but it is a dependable one – with in-built resilience to the ups and downs of milk price.

With a new whey plant going into this location, Glanbia will be making more of its own whey, but it will still be a small proportion of its own market needs. While Glanbia generates most of its income in the US, 18% of the business is still owned by Tirlán co-op, with additional shares owned by individual farmers. Tirlán is of course the original parent arising, as we were reminded at the meeting, from the merger of Avonmore and Waterford.

Nobody could accuse Glanbia of not paying its senior staff adequately. In 2023, her last full year as CEO, Siobhán Talbot received a total of €8.64 million.

Tirlán held its AGM on Wednesday with FBD Holdings, the quoted company on Thursday (7 May).