LAKELAND JOINT VENTURES WITH FANE VALLEY EXPECTED TO YIELD €845 MILLION ANNUAL REVENUE

Lakeland Dairies and Fane Valley co-operatives this week announced details of two new joint ventures projected to yield a combined annual income of €845 million.

The agri-business and dairy processing organisations issued a joint statement describing the ventures as “a significant and strategic development” that will enhance economies of scale and overall competitiveness for their farmer members, milk producers and customers at home and abroad.

The first joint venture is being established by a merger and pooling of both of the societies’ feed manufacturing, sales and stores activities into a major agribusiness company to be managed by Fane Valley.   Lakeland Dairies will be a partner and shareholder in the Agribusiness Joint Venture and will also be represented on the board of the new company.

Fane Valley and Lakeland Dairies currently have an annual animal feed manufacturing capacity of 310,000 tonnes and 190,000 tonnes respectively, with a broad range of high performance feed products sold north and south. The merger of both agribusiness operations will create a business with greater efficiencies, larger scale, buying power and the capability for future growth and service delivery across a larger geographic area.

The projected annual revenues of the agribusiness joint venture will be in the order of €175 million

The second joint venture is being established by a merger and pooling of both of the societies’ dairy processing activities and operations, to be managed by Lakeland Dairies. Fane Valley will be a partner and shareholder in the Dairy joint venture.

In Northern Ireland, Fane Valley and Lakeland Dairies currently procure 250 million litres and 330 million litres of milk respectively each year for processing into a wide range of value added dairy products and food ingredients, all of which are exported worldwide.

The purpose of the dairy joint venture is to create a business of greater scale and efficiency with the capability to grow and to compete even more intensively on a global basis.

Combined with the total existing Lakeland Dairies milk pool, the dairy joint venture will process over 1 Billion litres of milk annually.   This will enhance the overall capacity of both co-operatives to maximise returns from the markets in the interests of their milk producers.

The projected annual revenues of the Dairy Joint Venture will be in the order of €670 million.

HERITAGE OF EXCELLENCE

The joint statement issued by the co-operatives describes them as “neighbouring and friendly societies”.

“Each has a heritage of excellence in co-operative farming spanning well over a century and they share common business development aims in the interests of their members, producers and rural communities.

“Both co-operatives are highly successful agri-food and agribusiness industry players with excellent manufacturing facilities and complementary strengths and advantages in their various markets.

“Recognising the opportunities presented by the continuing growth and expansion of the agri-food industry, on the island of Ireland and internationally, the co-operatives have agreed to a combination of their respective dairy and agribusiness operations for mutual commercial benefit.

“Following the approval of the Boards of each…