The Irish-born chief executive officer (CEO) of US-based dairy ingredients company CoreFX has said that his purchase of a majority share in the business from Ornua comes after the partnership went “in different directions”.
Both businesses announced today (Wednesday, March 13) that CoreFX founder and CEO Denis Neville has purchased a majority stake in the Illinois-based business he founded in 2009.
Ornua had been the majority owner of CoreFX since 2016 when it purchased a controlling interest.
Speaking to Agriland, Neville said: “We decided in 2019 that the partnership, strategically, was moving in different directions, so we decided to part ways.
“Covid got in the way, inflation got in the way, a lot of things got in the way. We were at that time working towards somebody coming in to do a partnership with me.
“That didn’t work out, so in the end I proposed a management buyout, and we were able to figure out a way to get that done and that’s what has culminated in the change of ownership that we are going to see, and that basically is me taking a majority stake in CoreFX myself,” Neville said.
The deal will see Ornua stay on as a minority partner in the business.
Neville came from a dairy farm in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry. He studied dairy science and dairy chemistry in University College Cork (UCC) before working in dairy farming research at Teagasc Moorepark in Co. Cork.
He moved to the US to work with The Irish Dairy Board (which would become Ornua) in 2002 before deciding to move into the dairy ingredients business himself, starting CoreFX in 2009.
Neville’s decision to partner with Ornua originally in 2016, he said, was a “partnership of convenience from my perspective in terms of having a financial backer”.
“I had known Ornua for a long time… The relationship was always there. Kevin Lane had taken over at Ornua…and he knew the world that I was in…knowing value added ingredients and the world of taste and nutrition, and all that,” he told Agriland.
Kevin Lane was the CEO of Ornua from 2010 to 2018.
“For Ornua that was a completely different world, and Kevin wanted to get into that space more, and he had a dedicated strategy of adding value in the US through ingredients businesses.
Neville said: “Kevin Lane had a certain philosophy of what he considered to be a good strategic direction, and that was investing in high-end ingredients businesses or high-end ingredient technologies. The change in leadership after he left wanted a focus really on adding value for Irish dairy farmers’ milk only.
“That’s absolutely the right thing to do for Ornua, and we both agreed to this in the clear light of day, and went about parting ways,” the CoreFX CEO added.
“We got stuck in Covid and got caught up with inflation and other things, but it’s all worked out in the end. This change is very much an amicable one between Ornua and I, and I’m thrilled to be able to get this going because that’s what I consider what we’re about to do now, to just really get going.” Neville said.