Kevin Lane says the Irish Dairy Board will look to expand and innovate under his stewardship, writes SEÁN Mac CONNELL
‘STANDING STILL is not an option any more in the dairy industry. In fact standing still is going backwards,” said the new head of the Irish Dairy Board, Kevin Lane, when he presented the annual report of the organisation earlier this week.
Flanked by his executives, the Kerry-born Lane, who spent most of his working life with the dynamic Kerry Group, made it clear one of Ireland’s oldest and most successful indigenous multinational companies, the Irish Dairy Board (IDB), will not be static.
Asked what was his plan for the company’s future, the Brosna, Co Kerry-born honours graduate of University of Limerick confirmed a root-and-branch examination of all the functions and operations of the company was under way.
This, he said, would lead to a plan which would expand the company over the next three years by maximising the potential of all the divisions and working out how it could best exploit a global market which was showing signs of recovery.
Lane is no stranger to the world of global business, having worked overseas for Kerry for 18 years in the US, UK, Mexico and Canada, so it was not surprising that he was able to identify where the IDB must be to expand and survive. “We need to be in Asia, Russia and Brazil,” he said, adding the company had not made an acquisition in the past seven years and indicating that this was something that would change soon.
Because he is a farmer’s son from Kerry who milked cows in his youth, Lane is all too aware of the relationship between the IDB and the Irish dairy co-operatives and dairy companies which own it and use it as their central marketing arm.
Despite this, he is prepared to speak his mind on the failure of what he called “the Irish Dairy Industry Inc” to develop new products for the consumers they serve.
“There is not enough innovation in the sector and we need to be creating new products from our dairy output. Our competitors are working hard in this area and we are not and we will lose out,” he said.
Asked if this was not a matter of lack of money for expensive research and development, he said it was not, and that money could be found to fund the development of new products.
But the former global president and chief executive of Kerry Group’s flavour division indicated the IDB under his command would not be looking beyond the dairy sector for new lines such as bottled water or other non-dairy products to market under the highly successful Kerrygold brand.
This might not be on the IDB’s agenda, but expansion of the Kerrygold brand to other markets certainly is.
“Kerrygold-branded dairy products are being traded in 72 different countries and it is a highly successful brand. It is doing particularly well in Germany, the UK, the USA and in Greece, where despite the poor economic climate, there is a growing demand for Kerrygold cheese,” he said.
Lane, who took over the job in January last following a year of great turbulence in the global dairy markets, was reluctant to say the world dairy crisis is over, but he maintains things are improving.
“We have to be in a position to take advantage of any upturn and to hold on to what we have,” he said.
That will be ensuring the IDB business’s three divisions – consumer foods, food ingredients and DPI (a speciality food distribution company in the US) – perform to their utmost.
There are also group subsidiaries in the UK, mainland Europe and the US, which distribute and market a wide selection of branded products, dairy ingredients, specialised grocery, delicatessen and gourmet food items of both Irish and non-Irish origin.
With 3,300 employees worldwide, the IDB’s job, he said, was to maximise the benefits of the dairy industry here for the co-operative members of the IDB, and ultimately for the dairy farmers of Ireland.
