Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Liquid Milk Market: Discussion with Strathroy Dairy

4:30 pm

Mr. RuairĂ­ Cunningham:

We will start off with Senator O'Neill, who asked about our own-label split. Approximately 90% of the product we produce is own-label. That goes back to the early 1980s when we looked at the trends that came from the United States and which then moved across the water. They came in to the North and the South subsequently. One can see it in the increases. It used to be the case that every drop sold down here was home milk. Low-fat milk is now sneaking into the market. Between 70% and 75% of milk being sold in the North is low-fat or semi-skimmed milk. That will trickle down. At that time, we looked at it and saw the increase in the own-label sales. We figured we could spend a fortune growing a brand but it would die a death anyway. It is possible to see that with Glanbia's liquid sales at the moment. The branded sales have fallen off a cliff. I am unsure whether that has any relevance here but that is why we have stuck with the own-label route. If a retailer has sufficient volume and asks us for own-label milk, we will do it.