First Milk recovery leads to extra payment to farmers
Dairy co-op First Milk has seen its finances recover to such an extent that it will introduce a ‘member premium’ in the form of a 13th payment to its farmer suppliers from next year.
The move, part of a series of reforms to First Milk’s capital structure announced this week, will see members receive an extra 0.25p per litre payment annually. It follows an improvement in revenues during the past two years, which led to an increase in operating profit before exceptional items from £6m in 2015/16 to £11.7m during the 2016/17 financial year.
First Milk is also fixing its capital contribution targets in a bid to enable members to “grow and expand their milk production without a requirement to contribute additional capital”, it said.
The business, which now primarily focuses on supplying bulk cheese to third party partners such as Ornua, has also launched a share trading platform to make it easier for members to trade shares in their dairy farming businesses.
Source: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/categories/dairy/first-milk-recovery-leads-to-extra-payment-to-farmers/572774.article


