Co-operative Animal Health Ltd, the veterinary product wholesaler and importer society which owns animal feed and nutrition company Nutribio and Animal Health Distributors Ltd, reported a loss after tax of €731,433 for 2024, around half of the €1.43m loss recorded in 2023.

Donal O’Sullivan, CEO of Co-operative Animal Health, told the Irish Farmers Journal that the financial performance in 2023 and 2024 was driven by a mix of high energy and interest prices, plus one-off costs around the ending of a defined benefit pension scheme and some employment measures.

He added that there had been significant investments made which had proven slower than expected in providing returns.

O’Sullivan is very optimistic about the future of the company.

“We invested in capability and capacity and we’re now selling that capability and capacity.

“We’ve recently doubled in one area which is aimed at the global market and we’re driving on with that.

“In medicine, we’re a leading organisation in compliance and medicine regulation. We use our deep understanding of EU regulation to keep access to medicine, not only in Ireland but across the EU.”

He said that understanding will only become more valuable as medicine shortages continue.

“Shortages of veterinary medicines are a huge issue, not only for the farmer, but are regarded by the EU as a strategic problem that will be here for the next 10-15 years.”

Access

On access to veterinary medicines, O’Sullivan noted the proposed changes to rules around access to veterinary medicines, which will mean that from 1 September a veterinary prescription will be required for all antiparasitic medicinal products for food-producing animals.

“The deadline has been pushed back many times, and many would like to see it pushed back again because there is not enough time between the Veterinary Council of Ireland outlining how they will interact with the statutory instrument published by the government and for everybody else to rebalance their business model and stay in the business of supplying anti-parasitic medicines.”

He said the request at last week’s meeting in the Oireachtas was “just give us one more shot, one more delay, and everybody will be ready”. (See page 8 for more on the Oireachtas meeting).

“There is a challenge in there for us, because we’re largely a company supplying merchants and co-ops through Co-op Animal Health.

“However, through Animal Health Distributors, we’re very aligned with the vets because we do a lot of special import licences and our job there is making medicines available.”

While O’Sullivan admitted that the proposed changes did have to potential to hit turnover at the company, he said that selling medicine to merchants was a very low margin business, so it would not have a serious effect on the company’s bottom line. In 2024, 70% of the company’s sales were through Dairygold and Tirlán, the co-ops which jointly own Co-operative Animal Health.