Kerry Dairy Ireland, the dairy processor that returned to farmer ownership in 2024 after Kerry Group sold its majority stake, has announced a corporate rebrand and a €300 million investment plan over the next five years as it looks to grow its consumer brands and nutrition business.
The Dairygold butter-maker, one of the largest milk processors in the State, will now be called Kinisla.
Pronounced ‘Kin-eye-la’, the new name and brand identity is reflective of “the two defining parts of who we are”, chief executive Pat Murphy told The Irish Times, with ‘Kin’ referring to family, and ‘Isla’ referring to the island of Ireland.
“For us, this is much more than a name change,” he said. “It’s really about marking the next stage in the development and evolution of this business.”
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He said the process of finding a new corporate identity began shortly after Kerry Co-op reacquired a 70 per cent majority ownership of the business from Dublin Stock Exchange-listed taste and nutrition giant, Kerry Group, in late 2024.
“We had a lot of engagement with different stakeholders in the business in terms of farmers, big suppliers across the catchment area,” he said.
On Monday, Kinisla also announced a €300 million investment in its operations over the next five years, with plans to create 100 new roles over the next 12 to 24 months.
The investment will focus on developing the fastest-growing, highest potential aspects of the business, Murphy said. That includes Kinisla’s retail business, which incorporates the Cheesestrings, Dairygold and Charleville Cheese brands.
“The Cheesestrings brand has gone very well [in the UK] for us in the last number of years,” he said. “We put in a new facility in Charleville, going back maybe two years ago. We then increased the capacity by 50 per cent, so now we need to look at that business again to see how we can generate the most capacity where the demand seems to be increasing all the time.”
Ingredients and nutrition are the other high-potential areas of the business, Murphy said. “We take milk, and we look at the components, and we extract the components, where we think our customers can get a little bit of uniqueness that can satisfy their functional requirements,” he said.
The business unit makes high-protein dairy products, whey protein powders and speciality milk powders.
“It’s how we can extract those components in milk and satisfy that demand that’s happening across the world,” Murphy said.
Kinisla also announced its full-year results for 2025, which it described as a “robust” trading year despite significant challenges.
Global dairy prices collapsed in the second half of the year amid a massive oversupply of milk on international markets.
Still, Murphy said Kinisla paid farmers an average milk price of 53.5 cent per litre in the year. Kinisla has paid milk prices in recent weeks of around 41 cent per litre amid ongoing pressure on prices, he said.
Kinisla chair James Tangney said that Irish farmers are under significant pressure due to falling dairy prices and surging input costs.
“People can’t live on fresh air,” he said. “So there are anxious people out there.”
