Heaven preserve us from the image-merchants who have now foisted the dreadful Glanbia on us, leaving the long-standing names of Avonmore and Waterford on the corporate scrap heap.
After Diageo, the slanting Aer Lingus shamrock and the AIB ark, Current Account hoped that the firms might resist the blandishments of the image-merchants, but sadly the men from Kilkenny have succumbed.
No doubt, as an international business extending from Idaho to Lockerbie to Manchester and back to Ballyraggett, the new Glanbia will be immediately recognised as an international food company. No doubt, all the gaeilgoirs in Boise, Idaho will know that the local dairy company is known as "clean food" back on its home patch.
Closer to home, it seems that the dairy industry in Britain, in which Avonmore Waterford is a major player, is squaring up for another price row with Milk Marque, the farmers' co-op that supplies the processors with about two-thirds of their milk. Milk Marque's new price proposals are perfectly justifiable based on an expectation that dairy commodity prices will firm between April and September. The dairy processors - Avonmore/Waterford, Unigate, Express, MD and Wiseman believe that no such improvement in prices is in the offing.
What's likely to happen? More haggling will take place and a lower price will be struck. A bit of a regular ritual, really.
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