Farmers Co-operative merging with Agropur
Business decision aimed at strengthening company for the future, protecting members
Farmers Co-operative Dairy, which counts Newfoundland’s Central Dairies among its divisions, is merging with Canada’s largest dairy cooperative, Quebec-based Agropur.
Jeannie van Dyk, chairwoman of Farmers Dairy, said the merger ensures the long-term success in Newfoundland.
“The brand has been a leading brand for over 50 years in Newfoundland, and it will continue to be the brand in Newfoundland, well-recognized and loved by so many,” she said.
“The intent is also to continue processing the members’ milk in Newfoundland. We have a number of shareholders, or members of the cooperative, that live on both the east and west coast of Newfoundland, and we will continue to process the milk there.”
It’s too early to know what changes the merger will bring to the province van Dyk said.
“There will be business teams put together with people from the different plants to determine what the future will look like,” she said.
The terms and value of the merger were not disclosed, but Van Dyk said $10 million was committed to invest in processing over the next few years.
“We need to look at where that’s best spent to modernize and bring new technologies to our processing plants.”
Shareholders will vote on the proposed merger March 12, with April 2 set as the target to complete the merger.
Dave Collins, Central Dairies’ vicepresident of Newfoundland operations, said the deal will be good for the company.
“I think in terms of the future of processing in Newfoundland, we get to retain that the milk still comes from Newfoundland farms, is processed in Newfoundland, and sold to Newfoundland customers,” he said.
“What we get from it is continued commitment to the dairy industry in the province. We become part of a national organization with the resources to invest further in processing here.”
About half of the province’s milk is processed through Central Dairies, said Collins. He added that the deal was more about Farmers’ own future and not about competing with Scotsburn.
“This move is not to gain a competitive advantage on Scotsburn in any way. This move is to strengthen what we do here for the long term,” he said.