Tipperary Co-op delivered its “best ever financial year” in 2021 with turnover exceeding €300 million for the first time in its history.

The co-op, which has been in operation since 1908, revealed its 2021 annual results today (Tuesday, June 28), outlining a strong performance that led to a 19.2% increase in turnover from €245.2 million in 2020 to €303.5 million last year.

An operating profit of €5 million marked an increase of €8.1 million following a €3.1 million operating loss in 2020.

Shareholder funds also increased by just over 20% in 2021, from €23.86 million in 2020 to €28.77 million.

20212020ChangeChange %
Turnover303.52245.28+58.2423.75
Operating profit4.99(3.11)+8.10260.20
EBIDTA12.603.34+9.27277.67
Term debt(20.93)(23.93)+3.00-12.52
Term debt/fixed asset %37%42%-5%-11.90
Net debt(48.72)(47.54)+4.82-10.15
Shareholder funds28.7723.86+4.9120.59
Capital investment6.1014.60-8.50-58.22
Financial details for 2021

Full financial details are contained in the table above.

Tipperary Co-op highlights of 2021

A spokesperson for the co-op outlined a number of highlights to 2021. One such highlight was the fact that it marked the first full operational year of its new milk-evaporation and drying facility, during which time it processed 418 million litres of milk and buttermilk.

This facility was built between 2018-2020 and was commissioned in June 2020.

The new dryer – together with existing butter, cheese and milk-drying factories – collectively manufactured 64,500t of product – a 16.1% increase on the previous year.

Just over €6 million was spent on capital projects in 2021 including ingredient formulation, energy efficiency, and environmental management projects.

This brought to €56.7 million the total five-year capital investment by the society.

An important and prosperous year

CEO of Tipperary Co-op, John Daly, said 2021 turned out to be an “important and prosperous year” for the co-op.

“All businesses performed well and the excellent performance of existing operations was supported by the full-year operation of our new investment in infant formula and ingredients,” he said.

“The new project had its first full season of operation and performed superbly. The decision by your board of directors to invest in best-in-class technology was a brave and transformative choice.

“While the dryer investment was very considerable, given Tipperary’s size, the benefits will be felt for many years to come. In addition the timing was fortuitous for the society and the challenges would be much greater if were setting out on that journey today.

“The environmental hurdles are ever higher for investments in our industry and the cost of components of our project would be likely to be 50% greater were we starting our building project now.

He added that 2021 also saw an encouraging performance in its agribusiness division.

“Impressive also was the performance of our Tippagral Cheese operation in Dijon, France and MDD cheese agency, Spain where record volumes handled was allied with a healthy financial return – all the while coping with very tight cheese supply through 2021,” he said.

AGM
Tipperary Co-op’s annual general meeting (AGM) takes place at 8:00p.m on July 7, in Ballykisteen Hotel, Limerick Junction.

However, despite a strong result, 2021 also brought with it “spiralling energy and supply chain-related costs such as fuel, storage, and transport”.

And these continue into the current year, the CEO said.