Munster Express Online

Cllr Ann Marie Irish

“Attending public meetings in Bigwood and Mullinavat regarding branch closures, I very much welcome the proposal which emerged at the Mullinavat meeting that Ned Fitzpatrick, Glanbia board member and Mullinavat farmer, ask the Glanbia board to revisit their decision made three weeks ago to close Agri Stores in Loughcullen, Mullinavat and Carrigeen. The board will be asked to review their decision and look at keeping a least one of the three stores open. Loughcullen, with the highest turnover of the stores selected, had made €150,000 profit in 2008 and has an unusually high proportion of non-farmer sales (which would insulate its profits from farm suppliers with no direct investment in the area making inroads into direct bulk sales to farmers).”

“The Glanbia company said that they appreciate that there is upset at the closures but, given the change in the way farming is now done, the company doesn’t see Loughcullen and Mullinavat as the way forward business-wise. But they forget, or don’t know, one thing: that the local farming and indeed non-farming community don’t see things that way. Loughcullen serves a large non-farming community for items such as coal, briquettes, small animal feedstuffs and general hardware, and its closure will be a big blow to them also. Loughcullen is over 100 years in trading, no mean achievement, and has survived the turmoil of those years intact. The creameries have been served by many loyal employees; in particular, John Walsh of Loughcullen. The general consensus from the meeting is that if Glanbia lets the creameries close, they will lose their business of the local people thereafter.”

One public representative who has more than a passing interest in the Glanbia issue in South Kilkenny is Cllr Tomás Breathnach, who has just stepped down as chairman of Kilkenny County Council. The Kilmacow-based Labour Party councillor would like to see some movement by Glanbia on the three branches in terms of a positive outcome. His grandfather, Richard ‘Dick’ Walsh, was manager of the Kilmacow Cooperative Society, as was his late father Jack Walsh, and between them gave a total of 99 years’ employment to the Society. Tomás know only too well the workings of Glanbia, and went through a similar issue when the Kilmacow creamery, at that time was the most profitable of them all, closed in the 1999/2000 period after much discussion and division locally.