Lakeland Dairies, which has significant investments in Northern Ireland especially at Newtownards and, most recently, in Coleraine with the acquisition of Ballyrashane Creamery as part of LacPatrick, is designed and built to create economic advantage for milk producers and shareholders, according to chief executive Michael Hanley.

Mr Hanley, in a New Year message, says Lakeland Dairies is continuing to work competitively and successfully to underpin the future of dairying throughout Northern Ireland.

“The investments we have made over the past decade have enhanced our capability and our efficiency where we are adding value to milk across the 240 different dairy products that we are exporting to over 80 countries worldwide.

“While the markets and dairying conditions in general tend to be volatile on a cyclical basis, our production and processing platform is built on the core principle of achieving and maintaining long term sustainability in the best interests of dairy farmers. Trading conditions remained broadly positive during the year with a softening of the markets apparent in recent months due to increased global dairy production.

“The prospects for dairy markets in 2019 are dependent on a balance of milk supply and demand in global markets,” Mr Hanley adds.

In October the shareholders of both Lakeland Dairies and LacPatrick Dairies voted resoundingly in favour of the merger of both societies – subject to regulatory approvals both in both the UK and in Ireland, which are normal and ongoing processes.

Mr Hanley continues: “The combined organisation will be an international dairy food business of scale which will work to secure the future of our co-operative dairy farmer members for generations to come. It will deliver commercial benefits while processing increased volumes of milk and it will provide even greater capability to address global customer needs for high quality dairy foodservice, food ingredients and consumer products. We already have existing, well established commercial and operational strengths across this island, in the UK, Europe and worldwide. The merger will also serve to strengthen our UK market access in the context of Brexit.

“Lakeland Dairies is well invested with modern facilities and technologies to process all milk sent to us by our milk producers. We are continuing to target strategic opportunities across key market segments including infant formulas, specialised ingredients, food manufacturing and health related nutritionals. We are fortunate to have excellent customers in every corner of the globe and all of these have long term demand for our dairy products. On several occasions each year, customers visit our sites and we also bring them to supplying farms where they are impressed by the high quality and commitment of our milk producers.  That includes over 140 customers from the Middle-East and Asia who visited our facilities in Northern Ireland in recent months.  We are confident of continuing success in these growing markets.”

In September, Princess Anne opened a new £5 million high-tech product packing facility for Lakeland Dairies in Newtownards. This further underpins our export potential and market access for valued-added dairy products using milk produced in Northern Ireland.  Newtownards is now Lakeland’s main export logistics hub.

The new facility enhances the capabilities of this major dairy processing site which plays a key role in Lakeland’s Foodservice Division. It is part of an overall £27 million investment made in Newtownards over the past 10 years. It also follows the opening in 2015 of a major new Global Logistics Centre in Newtownards which is among the most technically advanced global export facilities in Europe.

“A survey that we published during the year identified that 95 percent of Lakeland milk suppliers in Northern Ireland will stay in production for the future. In addition to farmers who have significantly grown their output, roughly half of Lakeland milk suppliers said they will further expand their milk production by over three percent in each year to 2022.  This is a very positive signal. We are intent on supporting the ambitions of our milk producers through our own innovation and efficiency and in the services provided by our agribusiness and member relations teams,” he adds.

 Our New Year’s Resolution – to move away from black plastic by St. Patrick’s Day 2019.

Mash Direct crack down on our use of plastic as we embark on our New Year’s resolutions for 2019 with a fresh green start.

Many people at this time of year will be looking to their greens for a fresh and healthy start to 2019.  On the farm here at Mash Direct, we have plenty of vegetables all year round and so we are committing to going green in another way that will go long beyond January – we will be removing all of our black packaging by St. Patrick’s Day.  This will remove over 240 tonnes of black packaging from the food system every year.

In addition to this, we will be extending our commitment to keeping all of our range palm oil free.

In 2018, we achieved our goal of eradicating palm oil from our products in light of the issues surrounding deforestation.  We reformulated the recipe of our Chilli Baby Bakes to remove palm oil and continue to enforce this rule across our new product development.  In 2019 we are aiming to remove all black plastic from our packaging by April, years ahead of the targets set by many major supermarkets.

Being the farm and the kitchen we are in a unique position as we have direct control over our entire range from farm to fork creating one of the most vertically integrated supply chains in the ready meal sector.

Our pledge is that we will move our vegetable side dishes to environmentally friendly trays which can be fully recycled as opposed to the previously used black trays. These cannot be sorted by the optical sorting systems used in plastics recycling and as a result, black plastic packaging commonly ends up as residue and is disposed of in landfill. By moving to fully recyclable trays we are improving Mash Direct’s environmental footprint as well as contributing to the long-term health and prosperity of the Food and Drink Sector.

At Mash Direct we have responded to the consumer requests for Vegan products which offer both environmental and health benefits. We have been carefully crafting the recipes in the kitchen to bring two new Vegan vegetable side dishes to market by July 2019 including Vegan Mashed Potato and Vegan Carrot & Swede.

Chief Operating Officer at Mash Direct, Jack Hamilton said, “With a new year, what a better time to start thinking about the healthier option for the planet.”

The Christmas holidays are a time to celebrate with family and friends, usually involving a calendar full of fun and joyous festivities. For those in vulnerable positions, this may not be the case as Christmas reminds them of what they don’t have or loved ones they are missing.

Mash Direct, the award-winning vegetable side dish producer wanted to get into the holiday spirit and spread the Christmas cheer by getting involved with two local charities; East Belfast Mission and The Welcome Organisation to support those in need this Christmas.

East Belfast Mission (EBM) strive to support and tackle issues that vulnerable families across East Belfast face. This week Mash Direct donated 240 side dishes as part of EBM’s annual Neighbours in Need Appeal. With the help of other local businesses, 1,000 hampers full of festive treats were crafted and delivered to vulnerable families. Christmas has become an extremely difficult and expensive time of year, for many families these hampers are the only hope of having a Christmas dinner.

Project coordinator of Neighbours In Need, Sandie Gallagher said, “We are extremely grateful to have received such generous support from Mash Direct this year! It is fantastic to receive such brilliant support from a leading local company and we know that their donation of fresh nutritious vegetables will make a huge difference to local families.”

Mash Direct employees also volunteered this week at The Welcome Organisation, a local charity that provides a range of potentially lifesaving services to around 1,400 people who are affected by homelessness across Belfast every year. The Mash Direct team cooked up their award-winning produce at the daily drop in centre which is one of many other outstanding services The Welcome Organisation provide.

Chief Operating Officer of Mash Direct, Jack Hamilton said “it was great to be involved in such worthwhile causes and give something back to the community.  We have been actively involved with the charity Fareshare for 6 years now, donating over 103,000 meals for vulnerable people. We look forward to continuing to support Fareshare as well as Neighbours in Need and the Welcome Organisation to combat homelessness and food poverty across Northern Ireland.”

Glens of Antrim Potatoes has created a three-strong range of hand cooked crisps for Dunnes Stores for the retailer’s Simply Better portfolio.

The company, based at Cushendall in Co Antrim, a Food NI member, worked with Dunnes to develop Vintage Irish Cheddar and Red Onion, Clogherhead Sea Salt and White Wine Vinegar and Sriracha Chilli flavours. The new range of crisps is now on sale in Dunnes stores.

The crisps are all hand cooked by Glens of Antrim at its Cushendall plant.

Michael McKillop, managing director of Glens of Antrim Potatoes, a family business that employs around 60 people in one of the most picturesque and environmentally clean regions of Northern Ireland, says new crisps for Dunnes is a significant development for the business.

Established in 1972, Glens of Antrim is a longstanding supplier of a broad range of potatoes to leading retailers throughout Ireland, including Sainsbury’s, Asda, Dunnes Stores, Lidl and Marks & Spencer amongst others.

The family business began crisp production in 2015 and opened a new state of the art crisp production facility in 2018 at its main production site at Cushendall. This facility created additional jobs and production capability to export crisp products globally. Earlier in the year, the company secured export business in Singapore.