Top 10 agri-food companies in NI

A list of the top 10 agri-food companies in NI, compiled by the Irish Farmers Journal, has Moy Park just out in front when ranked on turnover, after recording sales of over £1.8bn in its most recent set of accounts.

The top 10 list includes those companies with a registered office address in NI, so that automatically removes some significant players, such as Karro Food Ltd, the owners of the pig factory in Cookstown, which has a registered office in Aberdeen. Also omitted is Leprino Foods, the third largest processor of milk produced in NI, which has a UK address in Cheshire.

In the past, Dunbia would have featured towards the top of the list when under the local ownership of Jim and Jack Dobson. However, Dunbia is now a division of Waterford-headquartered Dawn Meats, which runs its UK operation from Exeter in England. Dunbia UK still publishes full accounts, although no financial information is publicly available for the controlling party of the Dunbia operation – QDB Holdings unlimited, a company incorporated in the Isle of Man.

The other major player in the NI agri-food sector not on the top 10 list is ABP Food Group. It owns three of the seven major slaughter plants in NI (Linden, Lurgan, Newry) and has 16 sites across Britain with 51 in total across Ireland, Britain and Europe. Total annual turnover of the business is now estimated at around €5bn.

However, given its status as an unlimited company, little is known about its overall financial performance.

It is also important to point out that some of the companies within the NI top 10 have expanded their reach beyond these shores. Moy Park, with a registered office address in Craigavon, remains NI’s largest private sector employer, with processing sites at Dungannon and Ballymena.

However, it also has poultry operations in England and is involved in the wider foodservice sector, with facilities in England and France that process beef, pork, vegetarian products and desserts. The ultimate controlling party of Moy Park is Brazilian company JBS.

Just behind Moy Park on our list is W&R Barnett, the largest family-owned business in NI.

Best known as a grain merchant, W&R Barnett now has significant interests in the corrugated packaging business, with companies across the UK under the Logson Group banner.

It also operates a number of joint ventures with Dublin-headquartered Origin Enterprises Ltd to include NI’s largest feed compounder, John Thompson and Sons, grain importer R&H Hall and Independent Fertilisers Ltd, trading as Goulding Fertilisers in NI.

If listed out separately, both John Thompson and Sons and R&H Hall Trading Ltd would make it onto the top 10 list in NI, with turnover of £355.9m and £209.3m respectively in the 12 months to 31 July 2023.

Overall, W&R Barnett has (by far) the highest operating profit of all NI-based agri-food companies and is financially very strong, with net assets approaching £400m.

Dairy co-ops

Behind the top two is NI’s largest farmer owned co-op, Dale Farm, which registered record turnover in the year to the end of March 2023 of nearly £728m.

While it is yet to report a full set of results to March 2024, the co-op has confirmed turnover dropped 13% to stand at £631.4m, although operating profits reached a new record high of £37.5m.

Lakeland Dairies co-op also appears on the NI list, despite being headquartered in Cavan. The co-op has a NI company with a registered office address in Augher, Co Tyrone, with the principle activity simply being the “procurement of milk”.

Both the profit and the net asset figure for Lakeland, shown in Table 1, should be treated with a high degree of caution. In 2023, the entire Lakeland Dairies operation recorded a £12.8m operating profit on turnover of £1.4bn.

The other dairy company on the top 10 list is Belfast-based Greenfields Ireland Holdings Ltd, which specialises in the global trading of dairy commodities.

Companies with a strong asset base

As shown in Table 1, there are a number of companies with high net assets when compared to turnover, suggesting that they should be able to drive higher sales in future.

In the case of Fane Valley co-op, it has increased net assets from £124.5m to £148.4m in two years. In its latest annual report, Fane Valley CEO Trevor Lockhart noted that the co-op is “very well positioned” to pursue new projects, but the board had “adopted a cautious approach” against the backdrop of a volatile wider economic environment. Since then, Fane Valley has entered into a joint venture with Charles Crawford, the owner of Lough Erne Investments Ltd, for Ready Egg Products Ltd and its subsidiary, Skea Eggs.

Norbrook

At number nine on the NI list is Newry-based veterinary pharmaceutical company Norbrook Laboratories Ltd, owned by the Lord Ballyedmond family trust. It also has significant net assets, but had a “disappointing year” to end of July 2023 on the back of lower-than-anticipated sales. Operating profit fell from £15.33m to £3.66m. In May 2023, the company announced plans to lay off 180 staff.

Devenish

It has also been a difficult period for Belfast-based animal feed company Devenish (NI) Ltd, which recorded an operating loss of £9.36m in the year ending 31 May 2023, despite increasing turnover from £250.8m to £270.2m.

The company, which is ultimately controlled by Owen Brennan, has been implementing a strategy to improve trading, reduce debt and focus on its core animal nutrition business.

A number of assets have been sold since the end of the last financial year, including the research farm at Dowth in Co Meath, as well as its North American and Mexican operations.