Lakeland team looking for a new leader

Dairy bosses make dairy teams tick. Every team needs a leader and Lakeland Dairies boss Michael Hanley announcing he is stepping down next December means the co-op needs a new leader to take the business on the next leg of the journey.

This column a number of weeks ago wasn’t complimentary about one of the most recent developments in the co-op, but we must keep that development in context.

The most recent leg of the Lakeland Dairies journey has been very productive and eventful, with the processor almost three times the size now compared to when Hanley took the reins as CEO.

Chairs

In his 16-year tenure Hanley has had the backing of four different chairs, starting with Longford’s Mike Magan, Cavan’s Padraig Young, Monaghan’s Alo Duffy and finishing with current Chair Niall Matthews on the Louth-Monaghan border.

Magan replaced Eamon Farrelly in 2005 and around that time Lakeland was going through a difficult period of consolidation.

In 2006 the headlines were “150 jobs to go” and “12 agri stores to close”.

However, this quickly turned into development and investment with a new dryer announced for Bailieboro in 2008.

Remember, Bailieboro had been purchased from Kerry in the early 2000s. Around that time Lakeland had also bought the Omagh dairy business from Nestle. Prittchards, near Belfast, was purchased in 2003.

So as you can see when Hanley took over as CEO in 2006 the Lakeland train had left the station in terms of getting a foothold on the dairy business in the top half of the country. However, the ag science graduate had held various senior management positions within Lakeland Dairies since its formation in 1990.

He was the member relations manager that spearheaded the original 1990 campaign that saw the merger of Killeshandra and Lough Egish Co-operatives to form Lakeland Dairies.

Investment

New 7t dryers in each of 2010, 2014 and 2017 saw Bailieboro in Cavan become the mainstay for powder production in the co-op. The acquisition of Fane Valley in 2016 and the merger with LacPatrick in 2019 were the most recent steps in the ladder to Lakeland Dairies as we know it today, processing over 2bn litres of milk.

Similar to Hanley, some great leaders of the Irish dairy industry development journey have stepped off the stage in the last number of years.

Dairygold’s Jim Woulfe and Carbery’s Dan McSweeney are two others who have recently stepped down from the top job to allow the next wave of leaders become established.

We can only judge the success of these leaders from the legacy left behind at farm level and at the various processing sites around the country that fuel rural Ireland and keep customers the world over consuming dairy product that originates from converting human inedible protein grown in our green fields.

Hanley and Lakeland funded the investment somewhat differently than the southern co-ops. No shareholding requirement was or has been enforced.

Milk price

Ultimately, the cow pays for it all, so it meant Lakeland milk price wasn’t always top of the pops.

In the last year or two when we compare like with like at base milk solids Lakeland is back mixing it in division one.

The legacy or history of how milk is paid for in Northern Ireland is still hindering the progress of the industry there. However, if everything was right we wouldn’t have anything to give out about and no doubt payment structures will evolve in Northern Ireland also.

Roscommon native Hanley, like Woulfe and McSweeney before, him steps left of stage leaving the Lakeland business in a good place to allow the chair and directors of the co-op continue the journey that started way back in 1897.

Back then, over 120 years ago, the first creamery manager was employed on an annual salary “not to exceed £65”, which sounds high considering the annual profit for Killeshandra was £20.

The cow has delivered for the dairy industry, which continues to evolve and reinvent itself. It has to do it again now as milk supply constraints the world over mean the industry has to move to a new wave of development and value add.

No doubt Hanley will be on the sidelines watching it all happen.