There were attendees from 14 different countries at the DIN conference in London this week. Glanbia boss Jim Bergin outlined the Glanbia strategy and vision for growth. He explained one of the big issues for Glanbia in Ireland at the moment is management of peak milk capacity.

Bergin discussed the investment that is taking place to manage the 83m-litre weekly peak, expected this week. For Glanbia, peak milk week is up from 45m litres at peak in 2015.

Expansion of existing milk suppliers and the 220 new suppliers in the Glanbia catchment has grown annual volumes to over 2.7bn litres with Glanbia expected to exceed 3bn litres per year very shortly.

He explained to the mostly European audience that there are now 850 employees in Glanbia and it is a fully integrated business with agribusinesses (53 retail stores), grain purchasing and a consumer business.

The KPMG/Irish Farmers Journal milk price review has shown we have paid an average of 35.4c/litre over this period, so it’s a good score card

The Glanbia boss went on to explain that no farmer contributions had been taken to fund the new processing capacity with most of the €343m investment coming out of borrowing and some equity at the start. During the same time Bergin said €800m in shares or cash had been transferred over that period to shareholders.

He said: “The KPMG/Irish Farmers Journal milk price review has shown we have paid an average of 35.4c/litre over this period, so it’s a good score card, and shows the organisation is in a good place to perform for growth."

The recently announced joint venture with A-ware in the Netherlands got a mention with Bergin explaining the joint venture investment will be commissioned in 2022 and will have an output of 51,000t of largely continental cheeses. He said: “This reduces our dependency on cheddar and provides a whey stream to Glanbia and of course also adds 450m litres of processing capacity, so it will allow us process our suppliers growing milk volumes to 2022.”

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