Glanbia to provide suppliers with €35.6M support

Its ‘2016 Member Support Package’ comes after it paid an estimated €30M to members of the Society for 2015. 

The package will include at least €21M of milk price support, equating to an average of at least 1 cent per litre (cpl) on all milk supplied by members in 2016.

This move comes at a time when dairy farmers are being paid well below the price of production for milk.

Glanbia Co-operative Society chairman Henry Corbally said the current weak state of global dairy and grain markets made it a very challenging time for its members.

Support ​

“The board of the society recognises that 2016 looks likely to be a difficult year for our members and has resolved to provide support at this challenging time,”​ he said.

“We are today pleased to announce details of a 2016 Member Support Package worth at least €35.6M.” ​

Also included in the package will be support worth an estimated €4M consisting of a rebate of €7 per tonne on all 2016 feed and fertiliser purchased from Glanbia by members, estimated to be worth 0.15cpl to a typical milk supplier member purchasing all feed and fertiliser from Glanbia.

This support will also include: a €5 a tonne rebate on green grain and €2 a tonne on dried grain subject to a minimum spend of €40 a tonne on qualifying inputs.

Finally, a dividend totalling €10.6M, share interest of 25 cent per share will be paid to all members.

€67M support fund​

This package will use a portion of the €67M support fund created by the society’s sale of four million Glanbia shares in May 2015.

As part of the same process, a spin-out of 10M Glanbia shares to society members in September 2015 unlocked €170M of value created in the group for distribution to members.

Corbally said: “Farmer members are paid a competitive market price for their produce, and also benefit from the value created in Glanbia plc.​”

Separately, the board of Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) recently confirmed that in 2016 it will pay out the entire proceeds of the “additional cash bonus”​ from Ornua (formally Irish Dairy Board) on manufacturing milk supply.

This followed Ornua’s announcement that it would pay an “additional cash bonus”​ of €15M to its member suppliers, of which the GII portion is expected to be in excess of €3M.

The Glanbia Co-operative Society is Ireland’s largest co-operative, with more than 15,000 members and a current value of €1.9bn.