This is a subscriber-only article
The decision by Dale Farm in November 2016 to allow members who left in previous years a route back into the co-op, has helped to facilitate significant growth in the Dale Farm milk pool in the last 12 months.
Best estimates are that existing suppliers with around 40m litres have joined the co-op in that time period, the equivalent of just over 5% of the total Dale Farm pool.
On 1 January 2019, the co-op gained an estimated 17m litres from suppliers switching from competitors.
Eight suppliers moved from LacPatrick at the beginning of this month, bringing around 10m to 12m litres.
Suppliers
In addition, Dale Farm also gained an estimated 5m litres by taking on three suppliers based in Co Down who were previously with Fane Valley, and laterally supplying Lakeland Dairies.
This comes on top of significant gains from LacPatrick on 1 December, with a small number of suppliers switching to Dale Farm in July and at the start of 2018.
SHARING OPTIONS: