The sense of strife at North Cork Creameries intensified on Wednesday when news emerged that interim CEO Michael Cronin resigned at a board meeting on Tuesday night.

His resignation follows news that the proposed deal the co-op struck with Carbery Group to buy and process milk from the co-op had stalled.

In a further twist this week, Thomas O’Donoghue, who resigned as chair last week resumed the role of chair at the same meeting that Cronin announced his resignation, leaving Sean Morrison as chair for just one week.

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The whole debacle leaves the co-op in a really difficult financial position.

It has debts of approximately €7m, a workforce of over 120 people and about 200 farmer suppliers relying on the co-op for their livelihood.

Importantly, the co-op has no substantial income but lots of costs, not least wages, redundancy, overheads, contractor costs and a top-up to milk price.

The milk is continuing to go to Carbery, Dairygold and Arratipp for processing, but it is understood that the price being paid is substantially lower than market returns.

For the sake of the milk suppliers and shareholders, a resolution needs to be found quickly.

Keeping the name over the door should not be the priority for the board. The priority is to act in the best interests of the co-op, which is also the best interest of the milk suppliers.

The co-op has four potential partners. Kerry Dairy Ireland, for geographical reasons is probably best placed to take the milk at lowest cost.

KDI has a cheese plant in Newmarket, located less than 10km away from the North Cork plant at Kanturk which could serve that hinterland.

A significant chunk of the North Cork milk pool is located at Moyvane, where the former suppliers to Newtownsandes Co-op are based and which is very close to the KDI plant at Listowel.

Dairygold, Arratipp and of course Carbery Group are also options. In many ways, North Cork is blessed to have so many options to work with well-invested and stable co-ops as neighbours.

The fear that many suppliers have right now is that a reluctance to engage with partners could see the rug pulled from under the co-op board and that decisions will start to be made for them by third parties such as liquidators or receivers.

The dream of keeping the plant at Kanturk going is not a bad dream, but a dose of reality is required.

As it stands, North Cork can’t process milk and it can’t invest in the waste water treatment plant to enable it to resume processing milk.

The deal with Carbery was to buy it time. That deal is off and time is running out.

If North Cork runs out of road and suppliers scatter four ways, they will all likely end up having to spend thousands sharing up within their new co-ops.

A full merger is a better outcome for milk suppliers and it may also mean that the plant at Kanturk can be saved from closure.