Last year Dairygold co-op announced it had bought 59% of Vita Actives, a supplier of nutraceutical ingredients and nutritional solutions for €46.3m.

The deal included an extra payment of €11m depending on performance of the company and the option to buy out the balance of the shares in two years.

Early signs suggest that the performance of the Vita Actives has done well since Dairygold bought their stake, with the company reporting a profit after tax of €6.5m, up from €5.3m previously, in the year ended August 2023.

Turnover at the company increased from €29.7m to €41.4m, with 98% of sales to customers based outside the Republic of Ireland. At the end of the financial year it paid a dividend of €1.2m, of which just over €720,000 would have been paid to Dairygold.

In August of 2023 Vita Actives acquired an industrial premises in Tallaght which it said will “facilitate further expansion of the company’s operations." The average number of employees at the firm during the year was 19.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal earlier this year, Dairygold Chair Seán O’Brien said that the co-op was “very happy” with the performance of the Vita, and the purchase was described in the co-op’s annual report as “one of the highlights for Dairygold in 2023."

The report from Vita Actives released today only covers the first two months of the co-op’s involvement with the ingredients supplier.