Glanbia

Glanbia plc (ˈɡlɒnbiə ) is an Irish global nutrition group with operations in 32 countries. It has leading market positions in sports nutrition, cheese, dairy ingredients, speciality non-dairy ingredients and vitamin and mineral premixes. Glanbia products are sold or distributed in over 130 countries. While Europe and the USA represent the biggest markets, the Group are continuing to expand into the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Glanbia's primary listing is on Euronext Dublin. The Group has four segments; Glanbia Nutritionals, Performance Nutrition, Glanbia Ireland and Joint Ventures & Associates, with a combined workforce of over 7,000 employees in 32 countries. Given the company's origins in the co-operative movement, farmer-suppliers of the company retain a significant interest in the company. Tirlán remains the largest shareholder in Glanbia plc. as of 2022 and retains the right to nominate a number of non-executive directors to the board of the company in line with their mutual Relationship Agreement. Dairy products have long formed the backbone of Ireland's agricultural sector, and by the early 19th century the country was amongst the world's largest producers. In 1848, Ireland accounted for two thirds of butter imports into the port of London. Irish butter came under pressure by competitors modernising their systems with newly developed cream separators. As a consequence, Irish butter exports to London dramatically fell in the early 1880s. The new technologies fundamentally transformed the country's dairy sector, which had been operated by independent farmers. In order to support the cost of new equipment, dairy farmers grouped together to build centralised processing facilities – known as ‘creameries’. In the late 1880s, farmers adopted the cooperative format, often to enter into direct competition with the private creameries. Farmers who supplied milk to the co-ops were better served than those who sold it to the private creameries.