The Australian company OnCard is a provider of loyalty, rewards and payments solutions. On Friday 6 November, it announced its entrance into an agreement to buy Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL).

VDL, based in northwest Tasmania, was established in 1824 and is one of Australia’s oldest companies. It is also the country’s largest dairy farming business. It owns and operates 25 dairy farms, a dairy support unit and a standalone heifer-rearing operation, all across 17,450 acres. The average size of a farm in Ireland according to the 2010 Census of Agriculture is 81 acres, meaning some 215 Irish farms could fit inside this Tasmanian dairy business.

The business went on sale in October 2015.

The agreement, worth $250m (€164m), follows from OnCard’s recent acquisition of a dairy food products business, Meander Dairy Valley, also based in Tasmania. The agreement to buy VDL is therefore consistent with OnCard’s objective to build a business based on premium food products primarily sourced from Tasmania.

Under the terms of the agreement, OnCard, soon to be renamed as TasFoods, will acquire VDL’s farm land and dairies, livestock, fodder, plant and equipment, water rights and other assets. Subject to satisfaction of certain conditions, which include shareholder approval, completion of the transaction is expected to  take place in February 2016. 

VDL

VDL is the largest single supplier of milk in Australia. For the 12 months ended 31 May 2015, VDL milked over 17,800 cows to produce approximately 7.66m kg of milk solids, an increase of 14% on 2014. It also declared a net profit after tax of approximately $3.14m (over €2m). It is currently owned by New Plymouth District Council, based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand.

Northwest Tasmania is ideally suited to dairy farming due to its temperate climate, combined with abundant and consistent rainfall and year-round moderate temperatures.

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