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Tirlán CEO Seán Molloy has claimed interest in forming an alliance with Tipperary Co-op, saying he sees collaboration agreements between co-ops becoming more common over the coming years.
Molly stated that Tirlán’s board has flagged this interest with the board of Tipperary Co-op.
The Tirlán chief’s comments came as he said that the dairy sector is in a new phase which will see processors taking a look at how to utilise the industry’s processing capacity.
When asked on Thursday whether Tirlán was interested in a move on Tipperary Co-op, Molloy replied: “It’s a neighbouring catchment area to ourselves, we know that area very well and I have been open about it - we have interest in that milk pool.
“I have communicated that interest in behalf of our board to the board of Tipperary,” he said at the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference.
Process
“We have to respect they are going through their own processes at the moment, we will absolutely respect that, but we have looked to how we could form an affiliation, an alliance, with Tipperary that might work for ourselves and with them.
“Within Tirlán, we have a very fine model where we have corporate co-ops, as we describe them, so they are co-op members, the corporate members, of our organisation who maintain their identity, they do their own thing, but we work very well on a processing and milk perspective.”
Molloy said that the type of deal Tirlán would seek is “something that would have to be discussed with Tipperary” and “it takes two to tango in that regard”.
He commented that “co-ops have a very fine tradition, they like their own identities, they are wedded in their own communities”.
“The question to me is how one can move forward maintaining those identities, maintaining those co-ops’ relationships with the communities they come from and yet getting the benefits of working with the assets of a different model,” the processing chief said.
Co-ops co-operating
Molloy forecasted an increase in the degree of collaboration between dairy processors as the sector exits a period of “extraordinary” post-quota expansion activity.
“I think if I look to the next period in the industry, there will be a need to look at how we utilise our assets,” he commented.
“That may take all shapes and forms in terms of coming together as organisations. I think that will be a feature much more so in the future than it has been in the last period of time.
“Now, we should remember of course…there is a lot of co-operation with processors even today. We have lots of varied relationships with very good processors.
“I see more of that happening in the future, I have a view that we will probably going to look at more affiliation models in the future and we certainly in Tirlán will be interested.”
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