Tirlán has begun a restructure which will include 150 voluntary redundancies and see some staff reinterview for roles where their original role has been dissolved.

The cost reduction programme was described by incoming CEO Seán Molloy as necessary to position Tirlán strongly against future challenges and allow continued focus on product innovation and growth in value-added products.

It’s understood that some roles being made redundant or changing are at middle management level, resulting in the disbandment of existing sectoral teams and removal of some business manager roles.

The new model is believed to be replacing sectoral managers, a number of regional managers and agri leads, who may also be required to manage branches as part of their remit. It is understood that tillage and dairy advisory roles are also changing.

Molloy told the Irish Farmers Journal that the redundancies will be across the business, but focused primarily in three areas: ingredients, agri business and central functions.

In the ingredients side of the business, the reduction in employee numbers will be across the entire section from logistics to processing and sales.

Molloy said there are no plans to close any Tirlán stores and that investment plans for the store network will continue.

Technology, including the use of artificial intelligence, is going to be deployed to cut administration and bureaucratic tasks across the agri-business side. Molloy added that by the end of the process, Tirlán will have more farmer-facing employees than before.

In terms of central functions, the use of third party contractors and service providers is going to be reduced, with some tasks ceasing and others to be taken over by existing employees.

The “difficult but necessary” voluntary redundancies were attributed to rising costs in areas such as energy, interest rates, wages and environmental compliance as well as a decline in milk supply volumes.

Tirlán said that milk processing capabilities will remain unchanged, and the co-op will retain the ability to increase milk processing capacity if there are changes in milk supply dynamics.