The board of Glanbia Co-operative Society Limited has announced the creation of a '2016 Member Support Package' worth at least €35.6m. This latest support package is in addition to an estimated €30m support paid to members of the Society for 2015.
The Chairman of Glanbia Co-operative Society, 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 recognises that 2016 looks likely to be a difficult year for our members and has resolved to provide support at this challenging time. We are pleased to announce details of a 2016 Member Support Package worth at least €35.6m.'
In 2016, this will provide Society members with
- at least €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)
- patronage support worth an estimated €4m, consisting of a rebate of €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 per tonne rebate on green grain and €2 per tonne on dried grain (subject to a minimum spend of €40 per tonne on qualifying inputs)
- a special dividend totalling €10.6m (share interest of 25 cent per share to all members).
This package will utilise a portion of the €67m support fund created by the Society’s sale of four million Glanbia plc shares in May 2015. As part of the same process, a spinout of 10 million Glanbia plc shares to Society members in September 2015 unlocked €170m of value created in the plc for distribution to members. When combined with the '2016 Member Support Package' announced today by the board, this brings the total value distribution by the Society in 2015/2016 to €235.6m.
Henry Corbally acknowledged the foresight of members in creating the €67m fund, which allows the Society to support members at this time. 'This 2016 Support Package demonstrates the power of the Glanbia model. Farmer members are paid a competitive market price for their produce, and also benefit from the value created in Glanbia plc.'
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 €15m to its member suppliers, of which the GII portion is expected to be in excess of €3m.
