Dairygold Co-Operative Society Limited today (Friday, January10) announced Donal Shinnick as the new vice chair of the society.
Shinnick is a dairy farmer, from Buttevant, Co. Cork and has been a member of the Dairygold Mallow Regional Committee since 2004, the Dairygold General Committee since 2007 and the Dairygold board since 2019.
He is also current chair and director of Co-Operative Animal Health Limited (CAHL) and a director of Cork Racecourse Mallow Limited.
Shinnick holds a Diploma in Corporate Direction (food business) from University College Cork (UCC).
He is married to Ann and they have four children, Thomas, Mairéad, Áine and Kate. Donal and Ann are farming in partnership with their son Thomas.
The announcement of the vice chair follows confirmation of the newly elected chair, Pat Clancy, who has been a member of the southern co-op’s board since 2018.
He was previously vice chair from October 2020 to December 2022 and was also a member of Dairygold’s general committee since 2008 and the regional committee since 2005.
Dairygold
Meanwhile, Dairygold recently received milk supplier agreement “termination notices” from a number of suppliers over apparent concerns about changes to the co-op’s loyalty reward scheme.
In a recent letter to the members of the committee, the business said that recent changes to the Dairygold Loyalty Reward Scheme were implemented to “increase the rewards paid to those who are actively trading with the society and do so in a fair and equitable manner.
The changes include reducing the number of tiers in the scheme, adjusting the cash value of each tier, and to give new entrants two bonus shares for every €300 spent in the first five years.
It appears that these changes have angered some suppliers, and Dairygold intends on engaging with these milk suppliers directly over the coming days.