A vote on the governance structures within the co-op had been widely expected to pass comfortably at Tuesday’s special general meeting (SGM).

The proposed governance structures were to reduce the size of the LacPatrick board from 25 to 16, as well as creating a 60-person council from which board members would be chosen.

The 60-person council would have been drawn from 20 in Cavan/Monaghan, 18 in Derry/Antrim and 11 each in Down/Armagh and Fermanagh/Tyrone.

Over 100 LacPatrick shareholders voted at an SGM on Tuesday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan. The Dealer understands that the result of the vote was roughly 50/50, short of the two thirds majority required to pass.

This means that the board, for the time being, will continue to have 25 members and there will be no 60-person council.

Merging of boards

As I reported last week, the LacPatrick Co-op was born out of the merger between the Town of Monaghan and Ballyrashane co-ops.

It was agreed that the boards of the two co-ops would sit together until the governance structures were reviewed and voted on. The board was considered large and unwieldy.

As I gather it, the rejection of the proposal had little to do with the proposals themselves but was rather a protest vote.

I outlined some of the reasons as to why there would be a protest vote last week.

The failure to secure the majority to pass the vote is likely to be seen as a blight on the record of outgoing chair Hugo Maguire.

Read more on the LacPatrick vote in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal

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