an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . june 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message glanbia plc type public traded as lse glb iseq gl9 founded 1997 headquarters kilkenny ireland key people liam herlihy chairman siobh n talbot group managing director revenue 2 538.4 million 2014 1 operating income 186.1 million 2014 1 net income 147.2 million 2014 1 number of employees 5 200 slogan everyone everyday website www.glanbia.com glanbia plc l nbi a is a global performance nutrition and ingredients group with operations in 32 countries . it has leading market positions in sports nutrition cheese dairy ingredients speciality non dairy ingredients and vitamin and mineral premixes . glanbia products are sold or distributed in over 130 countries . while europe and the usa represent the biggest markets the group are continuing to expand into the middle east africa asia pacific and latin america . glanbia is listed on the irish and london stock exchange symbol glb . the group has four segments ; global ingredients performance nutrition dairy ireland and joint ventures & associates . including joint ventures & associates glanbia has over 5 200 employees worldwide in 32 countries . 1 2 contents 1 history 1.1 emerging from ireland s dairy consolidation in the 1960s 1.2 international expansion in the 1980s 1.3 a merged dairy giant for the new century 1.4 reorganisation in the late 1990s 1.5 new corporate identity 1.6 the new millennium 1.7 entering the nutritional foods segment 1.8 proposal to sell irish dairy division to farmers co op 2 segments 3 notes 4 further reading 5 external links history edit emerging from ireland s dairy consolidation in the 1960s edit dairy products have long formed the backbone of ireland s agricultural sector . in the early 19th century the country was amongst the world s largest producers of dairy products . in 1848 ireland accounted for two thirds of butter imports into the port of london . 3 irish butter came under pressure by competitors which were modernising their systems with the newly developed cream separators . as a consequence irish butter imports to london dropped to under one per cent in the early 1880s . 3 the new technologies and their introduction into ireland fundamentally transformed the country s dairy sector which had previously been operated by small independent farmers . in order to support the costs of acquiring the new equipment dairy farmers grouped together and built centralised dairy processing facilities which became known as creameries . in the late 1880s dairy farmers began adopting the cooperative format often to enter into direct competition with the private creameries . farmers who supplied milk to the co ops were better served than those who sold it to the private creameries . in time most of those businesses found that they were unable to compete with the farmer co operatives and many sold their premises and businesses to the co ops . 4 the numbers of creameries increased dramatically by 1900 and by the eve of world war i the country counted nearly 800 plants . in spite of the scarcities political unrest and violent incidents the world war i era had been a very prosperous period for farmers . the crisis in the country s agricultural market following the war led to a large number of creameries to shut down . 5 government policy intervened in the 1920s with the aim of further consolidating the dairy market . the number of individual creameries was reduced to just 17 large scale facilities in the years following world war ii . at the same time the number of cooperatives in ireland had shrunk back to less than 220 . butter remained the irish dairy industry s core product accounting for the vast majority of the creameries production . holstein cow the dominant breed in industrialised dairying today the members of five co operatives agreed to join forces and become waterford co operative society limited in 1964 . the formation of waterford co operative in 1964 was the first of the major amalgamations and it was the beginning of a story that would be repeated throughout ireland over the next 40 years . the size of the co operative gave them the opportunity to produce a bigger range of products . with its head start waterford was able to grow and a decade later in 1974 this scale of operation would help in winning the french yoplait franchise to produce the prestige range of yogurts at inch county wexford an association that continues to this day . waterford continued growing throughout the 1970s amalgamating with a number of other smaller creameries . in the meantime 25 other cooperatives agreed to merge to establish the avonmore creameries federation by 1966 . the ballyhale c.d.s. 100 year anniversary booklet records that a federation of 25 co op creameries originally emerged in january 1965 under the umbrella of avonmore creameries ltd. that shares were taken in the new entity by the society and that in following years a ballyragget milk processing factory was built . ireland entered the common market in 1970 . the first bulk milk collections tool place from 1973 when the amalgamation was formalised . ballyhale c.d.s. became one of 20 members of avonmore farmers ltd. ; the other founding members being castlehale mullinavat iverk piltown carrigeen kilmacow ballyragget south tipperary monastarevan muckalee barrowvale kells windgap brandonvale bennetsbridge castlecomer freshford donaghmore and fennor . according to glanbia collections in kilkenny archives 6 at st kieran s college kilkenny the avonmore coop brand was created through the merger of the village creameries that are included among their archives for ballingarry co operative creamery ltd. ballyhale co operative creamery dairy society ltd. ballypatrick co operative creamery ltd. avonmore creameries ltd. ballyragget co operative creamery ltd. bennettsbridge co operative creamery ltd. callan co op creamery and dairy society ltd. castlehale co operative dairy society ltd. castlecomer co operative creamery ltd. donaghmore co operative creamery ltd. dungarvan co waterford co operative creamery ltd. freshford co operative creamery ltd. glenmore county kilkenny co operative creamery ltd. graiguecullen county carlow corn & coal co. ltd. ida co operative creamery ltd. kells county kilkenny co operative agricultural & dairy society ltd. kilmanagh county kilkenny co operative creamery ltd. kilkenny city co operative creamery ltd. leinster milk producers association ltd. loughcullen county kilkenny co operative creamery ltd. miloko co operative society ltd. knockavendagh & moyglass killenaule co operative creamery society ltd. muckalee county kilkenny co operative dairy society ltd. mullinavat co operative creamery society ltd. piltown co operative society ltd. slieverue co operative creamery ltd. shelbourne co operative agriculture society ltd. windgap co operative dairy society ltd. letterkenny timber co. ltd. the bacon company of ireland inch creamery awaiting to be catalogued barrowvale goresbridge creamery awaiting to be catalogued backed by the british dairy giant unigate the new federation began the construction of a new multi purpose dairy plant in ballyragget county kilkenny . the plant was the biggest processing facility in europe at that time . today the ballyragget facility is the largest integrated dairy site in europe processing about 20 % of the irish milk pool . avonmore originally focused on the production of butter and powdered skim milk . on 1 september 1973 20 societies amalgamated thus creating avonmore farmers ltd. as time moved on unigate s involvement changed and in 1978 the cooperative bought back unigate s stake in the ballyragget facility . international expansion in the 1980s edit both avonmore and waterford expanded into the 1980s . at home both companies established brand names while waterford continued with its yoplait franchise . the two co operatives continued to add product lines . avonmore for example launched avonmore fresh milk on the dublin market on 1 june 1981 . the two companies avonmore and waterford went public in the 1980s . avonmore went first becoming avonmore foods plc on 6 september 1988 . waterford foods plc was launched on the irish stock exchange iseq on 6 october 1988 . both groups remained majority controlled by the dairy farmers that had formed the original co operatives . with new access to capital both companies embarked on a programme of expansion . avonmore s strategy included growing the dairy business in the uk and us . they also decided to grow the business through acquisition . over the next nine years they made 28 acquisitions in ireland the uk the us hungary germany and belgium . the major developments were in the uk with liquid milk and mozzarella cheese and in the us with cheese production in wisconsin illinois and idaho . in the years following flotation avonmore also invested in the meat business in ireland . in 1989 the year after the establishment of waterford foods plc the group bought galloway west in the us heartland dairying state of wisconsin . the company manufactured cheese condensed milk and food ingredients . later in the year waterford bought a.heald limited of manchester a company that operated in the liquid milk and fruit juice business . waterford also expanded in ireland with the move into the prized dublin milk market . in 1995 waterford bought the cheese company one of the two largest cheese manufacturers in great britain . both organisations were focused on similar growth strategies at home and overseas . speculation was therefore rife as to a possible merger between the two dairy giants . the talks began in 1991 . however the two sides were unable to reach an agreement at that particular time . a merged dairy giant for the new century edit waterford s expansion came at a cost however and the group struggled to maintain profitability in the mid 1990s . by 1997 after waterford posted a profit warning the group once again found itself in merger talks with avonmore . on 13 april 1997 waterford confirmed in a media statement that it had received a formal approach from avonmore foods plc and avonmore creameries limited and advised that the waterford board was considering this approach . the prize for a successful merger would be significant an irish based world scale food company . this proposed coming together would represent the biggest amalgamation in the history of the irish dairy industry and possibly of irish agribusiness . intensive dialogue took place between avonmore and waterford throughout april and may 1997 . on 26 may the boards of waterford foods plc and waterford co operative society met to consider amended proposals from avonmore foods plc and avonmore creameries ltd. the merger proposals provoked serious debates at numerous shareholder meetings throughout waterford and avonmore . some shareholders had strong reservations and among their concerns were issues such as perceived loss of identity dominance by one party over another relative valuations of the two organisations size and scale of the new entity representation and weakening of farmer control . however the overwhelming majority of shareholders believed that the merger was the right option for both organisations . the first vote took place on 11 july 1997 exactly three months after the merger was formally proposed . the first vote followed an intensive six week programme of shareholder information meeting throughout the waterford and avonmore areas . the successful merger of avonmore creameries limited and waterford co operatives society on 4 september 1997 formed the new avonmore waterford co operative society . on the same date the merger of avonmore foods plc and waterford foods plc formed the new avonmore waterford group awg plc. 7 reorganisation in the late 1990s edit glanbia principal cream supplier to baileys irish cream the result of the 1997 avonmore waterford merger was to create the fourth biggest dairy processor in europe and the fourth biggest cheese producer in the world . consequently the avonmore waterford group announced a reorganisation programme following