United demonstrates strength of NI agri-food sector

The Northern Ireland agri-food sector demonstrated further growth this month through the further expansion of the United Dairy Farmers business. United Dairy Farmers, Northern Ireland’s largest dairy business and parent of Dale Farm, this month extended its farmer cooperative membership beyond Northern Ireland and into Great Britain.

The cooperative, owned by around 1,800 Northern Ireland farmers, now also has dairy farmer members in both England and Scotland.

This represents a significant step in repositioning United as a UK wide farmer cooperative.

“We are delighted to have injected further impetus to our business by adding the current milk suppliers to our GB factories to our membership base,” United’s Group Chief Executive David Dobbin said.

“Our sales of consumer products in GB have witnessed record growth over the past year, mainly driven by sales of cheese, butter and spreads from our Northern Ireland plants. The introduction of GB membership further strengthens our position as a national dairy business owned by farmers across the UK at a time when foreign owned dairies are increasing their presence and control of the UK dairy market,” he added.

“This expansion is good news for all United shareholders throughout Northern Ireland and Great Britain. It reinforces our credentials as a national player supplying the best of British Red Tractor dairy produce and will help us increase our business with UK supermarkets.”