The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has bought Dairygold’s continental European retail cheese business for an undisclosed sum.

The business is part of Dairygold Deutschland, based in Mainz in Germany, and markets a range of cheddar and farmhouse variety cheeses to retailers in Germany and neighbouring countries under the Irish Land brand and through private label.

This acquisition will strengthen the IDB’s European cheese product portfolio and increases its European customer base.

Furthermore, the acquisition will allow Dairygold to focus on the emerging post-quota opportunities in its core business-to-business activity within dairy ingredients and its cheese solutions business in mainland Europe.

Dairygold Deutschland will continue to operate the business until the end of March. From then, IDB Deutschland will distribute the full range of Irish Land cheese products.