Big cheese for First Milk and Dairygold


By FWi staff


FIRST Milk and Dairygold are joining forces to develop Aeron Valley Cheese.


The Anglo-Irish joint venture means the two companies will become partners in the recently refurbished creamery.


First Milk, Britains largest farmer-owned dairy business, acquired Aeron Valley from Milk Marque at the beginning of June. Dairygold is one of Irelands leading farmers co-ops.


“This exciting joint venture partnership will drive forward the expansion of the business,” said First Milk chairman John Duncan. Aeron Valley currently produces 10,000t of cheese a year.


Denis Lucey, Dairygolds chief executive, added: “We are delighted to be working with First Milk on this ground-breaking project. We look forward to building a first-class, farmer-owned cheese business in West Wales.”


No further details of the agreement are available.


First Milk, formed from the merger of Axis and Scottish Milk, started trading on Apr 1. It has about 4500 farmer members and markets about 2.2bn litres of milk a year.


Dairygold has 5,600 farmer members and owns processing enterprises on both sides of the Irish Sea. British interests include Haslington Cheese, Crewe and the Horlicks cheese business in Somerset.

FREE NEWS UPDATE


CLICK HERE to receive FWis FREE new daily email newsletter to keep up-to-date with the latest news of foot-and-mouth and other farming-related stories

See more