Kerry Group has sold its Ballinahina Dairies operation in Cork to the locally-owned Clona Dairies, a move that means liquid milk in the greater Cork area will now be supplied by two players - Dairygold and Clona. Clona is jointly owned by three of the West Cork dairy co-ops, Bandon, Barryroe and Lisavaird.
A spokesman for Kerry said the decision to sell Ballinahina reflected the low margins in liquid milk, and especially in Cork where Ballinahina was the smallest of the three main suppliers.
It is understood that Clona paid around £5 million (€6.35 million) for the Ballinahina operation.
He emphasised that the sale of Ballinahina did not mean Kerry was planning to get out of liquid milk altogether and added that there were no plans to sell any of the group's four Dawn dairies in Galway, Killarney, Limerick and Moate.
Meanwhile, Glanbia confirmed it planned to sell a 275-acre farm in Castlelyons, east Cork, which has a milk quota of almost 200,000 gallons. The sale is part of the group's asset disposal programme.
