The UK’s largest farmer-owned dairy cooperative Dale Farm’s annual general meeting has heard that its turnover dropped by nearly £100 million in what chief executive Nick Whelan described as “challenging year” for producers, with continued input cost, inflation, a volatile global dairy market and difficult weather patterns.
The co-op’s newly-published annual report, presented to members at its AGM in Belfast, confirms that revenues in the 2023/24 financial year fell from their record-breaking £727.8 million last year to £631.4 million, although operating profit increased from £35.5m to £37.5m
But the report shows a net profit of £29.8m before tax (up from £26.8m and £22.1m in its last two trading years), which equates to 3.24 pence profit per litre purchased.
“These have been challenging times for businesses, but against this backdrop, we can take great encouragement from our performance,” Mr Whelan said.
The cooperative - whose portfolio of award-winning brands includes Dale Farm, Dromona and Mullins - is owned by 1,300 farmer members, and last year had a milk pool close to one billion litres (938m). It also produced 58,893 tonnes of cheese.
Dale Farm, which has 1,051 employees operating across eight locations in the north, specialises at every step of the food chain, from farm support to milk collection, processing and manufacturing a wide range of dairy products for the retail, foodservice and ingredient markets
It operates across seven different categories (beverages, cheddar & whey, butter & spreads, creams & custards, ice cream, feeds, and agri services), and it distributes products across the UK and also exports to 40 global markets.
Among highlights during the last year was a £70 million investment in its cheddar processing facility at Dunmanbridge, Co Tyrone, which will boost cheese production by 20,000 tonnes annually.
The Dunmanbridge site currently directly supports over 1,100 families in the local area, with 345 employed at the facility and a further 760 farms out of Dale Farm’s 1,300 milk producers, supplying milk to it.
“As one of the largest ever investments of its kind by any Northern Ireland agri-food company, this is a statement of intent and is a mark of our position as a leading European cheddar manufacturer,” Mr Whelan said.
“It is a testament to the commitment of the team at Dunmanbridge that such progress has been made on construction while maintaining day-to-day operations at the site.
“Across all of our processing sites, operations teams have delivered exceptional quality and service throughout the past year, supporting the growth of the cooperative and strengthening our customer relationships.”
He added: “Every decision we take as a cooperative is about ensuring the 1,300 farmers who supply us with milk have sustainable, profitable farm businesses for the future. That is what drives every part of our strategy and it is through investment in our facilities and pursuing further growth as a cooperative that we can drive further competitiveness on milk price.”
Last autumn Dale Farm launched its ‘Future Strong’ sustainability programme which it says will develop and evolve as it endeavours to meet environmental targets, with information collected in the sustainability survey used to calculate a baseline carbon footprint of its milk pool.
“Having this baseline assessment and the accompanying data has already enabled us to showcase the positives within the milk pool, which has proved invaluable in retaining and winning new business for the cooperative,” Dale Farm’s chairman Fred Allen said.
