First Milk's new Board confirmed

This week Clive Sharpe formally assumed his role as the Chairman of First Milk, with Nigel Evans and Jim Baird being confirmed as Farmer Directors in the new Board. It was also confirmed that Nigel Evans, on stepping down as acting Chair would be appointed as Vice Chairman of the new Board.

Mike Gallacher, CEO said: “I am delighted that our transition to a smaller, restructured Board has progressed rapidly and smoothly. The new Board now combines substantial commercial experience, robust front line Dairy knowledge and also a level of continuity that will help sustain the speed of our turnaround.

“I would like to thank departing Farmer Directors Wendy Radley, Willie Campbell and Robert Craig for their dedication and valued contributions during the time that I have worked with them as Board members. Over that time we have moved fast to progress in a number of areas. We have restructured teams across the business, cut costs, addressed quality and agreed and established a new Board and Governance structure. At the same time we have taken steps to reshape First Milk around our core Cheese and Liquid business by selling our Glenfield Dairy subsidiary and exiting the Westbury Dairies joint venture. The business has returned to trading profit and before Christmas we completed refinancing the business.

“The progress we have made means we can now focus on improving relative milk price returns over the next financial year that starts in April. In simple terms we are on track but need to now move even faster, faced as we are with incredibly tough market conditions and aware of the impact that is having on our members.”