Cantillon: Glanbia left grappling with MMA

Glanbia may live to regret jumping on the Conor McGregor bandwagon in light of recent events, which have once again cast a shadow over his sport, if it can be called that.

The tragic death of Portuguese fighter João Carvalho from injuries sustained at a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event in Dublin, where he suffered a technical knockout loss to Charlie Ward, McGregor's team-mate, has generated a stream of calls for the activity to be banned or, at very least, better regulated.

McGregor signed a sponsorship deal with Glanbia last year to front its BSN performance nutrition brand, which includes a range of pre-work out protein powders and shots, said to be favoured by cage fighters.

While the financial terms were never divulged, it was signed just after McGregor had brokered a lucrative deal with US beer giant Budweiser and could not have come cheap.

While the tie-up appears to make sense in terms of the product, which is aimed at body-sculpting gym bunnies, it sits uneasily with Glanbia’s preferred corporate image as a clean purveyor of dairy products such as Avonmore milk and Kilmeaden cheese.

“I take my nutrition very, very seriously. You can’t cut corners in this game. You must align yourself with the best in each field, and that is what I have done. BSN is leading the way in nutrition and supplementation,” McGregor said at the press conference announcing the deal.“They are breaking barriers in their field and I am breaking barriers in my field.”

His enthusiasm was mirrored by BSN's Kent Cunningham, vice president in charge of marketing, who weighed in with: "Conor is the human embodiment of all that BSN stands for, both inside and outside of the Octagon".

Glanbia acquired Florida-based BSN for €108 million in 2011. The company’s suite of performance nutrition products, which are derived from the once-discarded whey protein, has become the largest contributor to the group’s earnings.

Its latest full-year numbers show it generated €135.6 million in core earnings in 2015, up 28 per cent on the previous year.

This was the first time profits from sports nutrition outstripped its traditional bedrock of global ingredients.