Canadian dairies celebrate merger

Longueuil, Que. – Quebec’s Agropur Cooperative and Sussex, N.B.-based Dairytown Products Ltd. have agreed in principle to merge the two organizations.

Agropur Cooperative is owned by 3,348 Canadian dairy producers. The organization processes more than 3.3 billion litres of milk per year at 31 plants in North America, with sales of more than $3.8 billion annually.

Dairytown is a specialized ingredient supplier to the processing, retail and foodservice industries, and well as producing butter, skim milk powder and custom milk powder blends. It employs 189 people, and has 207 beneficiaries, all of whom are New Brunswick based dairy producers.

“This is excellent news for both our organizations,” says Jim Walker, chairman of Dairytown Products. “Our respective vision and values gave us the opportunity to reach this agreement. This will allow the producers of both organizations to benefit from the advantages of being part of a large national co-operative, and to better serve customers across the country.”

“This agreement is consistent with our desire to keep dairy processing assets in the hands of producers wherever possible,” adds Agropur president Serge Riendeau. “It will also increase our critical mass in the region and help secure our long-term presence in Atlantic Canada.”

The Dairytown beneficiaries will be asked to vote on the proposed merger. A final agreement is expected within the next few weeks.