Glanbia/Leprino say cheese of the family-owned group that is the biggest mozzarella producer in the world, doesn't harbour corporate grudges. If he had, it's unlikely that Leprino would have so eagerly jumped into bed with Glanbia by spending £27.5 million (€35 million) for close to a half-share in Glanbia's mozzarella business.
This isn't the first time that Leprino - probably unique in the world food industry in being not just privately-owned but family-controlled for the past 86 years - has tried to get into the European mozzarella industry by linking up with an Irish producer. Five years ago, Leprino set up a joint venture with Golden Vale to build a £25 million plant in Fermanagh with lots of support supposed to come from the North's Industrial Development Board (IDB).
That joint venture - and particularly the planned grant aid from the IDB - led to a storm of protest from an organisation called the European Association of Mozzarella Manufacturers, which claimed that state support for a new producer was unfair and threatened to go all the way to the European Commission to block the move.
The Commission, however, gave the thumbs up to the £4 million grant aid for the project.
And who were some of the leading lights in this trade association that tried to put the kybosh on Golden Vale and Leprino's plans? Well, it included Avonmore and Waterford Foods (now less than happy bedfellows in Glanbia) and Carbery Milk Products.
Eventually, Golden Vale and Leprino abandoned the Fermanagh mozzarella plan because it could not get the commitments from pizza companies for the minimum required production of mozzarella. The reality was, however, that Avonmore beat Golden Vale/Leprino to a big supply contract from Pizza Hut.
Five years on and the mozzarella scene has changed. Golden Vale no longer has any interest, with Jim Murphy focusing more on ready meals, and getting out of dairy processing. Pat O'Neill no longer heads Glanbia, with Ned Sullivan now running the show and succeeding in building relations with Jim Leprino to the extent that allows Leprino and Glanbia to join forces to launch a charge on the European market.
Purely on the finances, it looks like Leprino is paying a full price for its 49 per cent stake in the Glanbia mozzarella business, with the £27.5 million for the half stake representing almost 11 times the Glanbia division's 1999 pre-tax profits. But as well as cash, Leprino - acknowledged as a world leader in mozzarella production technology - is bringing its own expertise to the joint venture and that should pay dividends.
But the stock market hasn't paid a blind bit of notice to the Glanbia/Leprino deal. The price paid by Leprino for its stake values the Glanbia mozzarella business at £55 million. That means that the market values the rest of Glanbia's business - the Irish dairy operations, processed meats operations in Ireland and Britain and its successful dairy business in Idaho in the US - at just £95 million. That sort of valuation is hardly justified.
This column has never been a great fan of Glanbia since the merger that was overly generous to its Irish milk producers. But there are signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Dairy commodity prices are improving, the 3p a gallon milk price premium guaranteed to farmers runs out this year, and Idaho has turned into a gem of a business.
It may be too early to say that Glanbia is a recovery play, but the current price in the market - less than five times current year earnings forecasts - is oversold.
That, however, will mean little to Irish institutional investors focused on large euro-zone investments and with little interest in small Irish food companies, especially those like Glanbia which is effectively controlled by its raw material suppliers - the farmers who own the co-op, which owns 54 per cent of the plc.
