Introduction

Glanbia is a very exciting case to learn from. Two regional cooperatives, Avonmore and Waterford Foods went public in Sep and Oct 89. The farmer cooperatives kept majority ownership all the years. In Sep97 the two merge to Avonmore Waterford Foods and in Mar99 the company is re-named Glanbia Plc, owned almost 55% by Glanbia Society. The Irish dairy (ingredient) business is all concentrated in a single integrated plant, claimed to be the largest Europe. The company gets rid of non-core business, i.a. in the meat industry, and sells part of its British business. It reinvests the proceeds in businesses built up in the US, Nigeria, China and several other countries with high growth potential. It started its US cheese operations green field already since the early 90’s. In 2005 it launched Southwest Cheese, a JV operated by Glanbia and supplied by local cooperatives, in New Mexico, doubling its processing in the US, tripling its Irish production. With a series of strategic investments since 2005 it builds up a world leading position in the nutritionals business, benefiting from its research in whey processing. Farmers remain unhappy though about the milk price and are concerned about the strategic positioning of their milk business as the EU quota regime is due to expire in 2015 and milk volume is anticipated to surge 15%. The Board of the Society negotiates a buy-out proposal with the Board of the Plc and is put to vote in May10. Having studied the details of the proposal and the strategy and financials of the Group, what would be your vote? With a part 2 because the vote had an unexpected outcome. The case study is presented to, and discussed with an audience comprised of 25 student in managerial positions in the NL Food & Finance industries, participating in the Module on Cooperative Entrepreneurship at Nyenrode Business Universiteit. Nyenrode is the single private business school in the Netherlands.