Tipperary Co-op sales decrease by over €100 million in 2023
The Tipperary Co-op has described the year as "a challenging period."
Tipperary Co-op published it's annual report recently and CEO John Hunter said the business "expects to return to profit in 2025 after bracing a challenging period for the society."
Mr Hunter said that the decrease was in part due to falling market returns and high input prices and these were also compounded in Tipperary Co-op by exceptional operating challenges in its milk processing business during the year.
The annual report revealed that sales fell from the highs of €420 million in 2022 to €304 million in 2023, a decrease of €116 million.
The company reports that it's French based cheese business, Tippagral, however, had a very strong year.
Mr Hunter added "operational challenges arose in Tipperary’s state of the art processing facilities which produces premium product offerings across butter, cheese, milk powders and concentrates. Unforeseen delays pushed the installation and commissioning of a ‘bag house filter’ at the Tipperary town plant into the busy 2023 processing period, resulting in significant unplanned downtime in the dryer plant, lower productivity, higher energy costs, and lower yields."
“Our investment in creating a state-of-the-art plant brought unexpected challenges. But as we turn the corner, we can look forward to reaping the benefits of this transformed plant going forward and a broad product offering across butter, cheese, specialised powders and concentrates.”