Following the completion of the merger last week, Avonmore/ Waterford has appointed 13 new non-executive directors and three new executive directors.

The non-executives are the former farmer directors of Waterford Foods and the three new executive directors are former Waterford Foods executives.

The managing director of the newly-merged company is former Avonmore Foods chief executive Mr Pat O'Neill, with former Waterford Foods chief executive Mr Matt Walsh becoming deputy managing director of Avonmore/Waterford.

Two other former Waterford executives have been appointed to the Avonmore/Waterford board. Mr John Moloney has been appointed chief executive, food ingredients Ireland and Mr Bob Trott, chief executive of The Cheese Company in the UK.

Mr Trott is the first non-Irish national to be appointed to the board of the company.

The other executive directors are all former Avonmore directors. These are group finance director, Mr Geoff Meagher; chief executive - consumer products, Mr Rory O'Mahony; chief executive - agricultural trading, Mr William Murphy and chief executive - meat division, Mr Eddie Power. Mr Brendan Graham is group secretary of Avonmore/Waterford.

Last week, Avonmore/Waterford issued 116.6 million new shares to former shareholders of Waterford Foods, bringing the total number of shares in issue to 291.4 million and valuing the merged company at £816 million at the current share price.