Glanbia announces member support package

28-Jan-2016 - Last updated on 28-Jan-2016 at 13:38 GMT

The Board of Glanbia Co-operative Society Limited in Ireland has announced the creation of a 2016 member support packageworth at least $38.8m (€35.6m).

This latest support package is in addition to an estimated $32.7m (€30m) support paid to members for 2015.

Chairman Henry Corbally, said, “The current weak state of global dairy and grain markets makes this a very challenging time for members of our Society. The Board of the Society recognizes that 2016 looks likely to be a difficult year for our members and has resolved to provide support at this challenging time.”

In 2016, this will provide members with at least $22.9m (€21m) of milk price support (equating to an average of at least 1 cent per litre (cpl) on all milk supplied by members in 2016).

Rebates available

There will also be patronage support worth an estimated $4.4m (€4m), consisting of: a rebate of $7.60 (€7) per tonne on all 2016 feed and fertilizer purchased from Glanbia by members (worth 0.15 cpl to a typical milk supplier member purchasing all feed/fertilizer from Glanbia), and a $5.45 (€5) per tonne rebate on green grain and $2.18 (€2) per tonne on dried grain (subject to a minimum spend of $43.63 (€40) per tonne on qualifying inputs).

In addition, Glanbia announced a special dividend totalling $11.6m (€10.6m) (share interest of 25 cent per share to all members).

This package will utilize a portion of the $73.1m (€67m) support fund created by the Society’s sale of 4m Glanbia plc shares in May 2015. As part of the same process, a spin-out of 10m Glanbia plc shares to Society members in September 2015 unlocked $185.5m (€170m) of value created in the plc for distribution to members.

Ornua cash bonus to be paid out

When combined with the support packageannounced by the Board, this brings the total value distribution by the Society in 2015/2016 to $257m (€235.6m).

Separately, the Board of Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) recently confirmed that in 2016 it will pay out the entire proceeds of the “additional cash bonus” from Ornua on manufacturing milk supply.

This followed the announcement by Ornua that it will pay an “additional cash bonus” of $16.4m (€15m) to its member suppliers, of which the GII portion is expected to be in excess of $3.3m (€3m).