Joe Moran is nothing if not versatile, but it came as a surprise to this observer to hear that, not only does his IWP group run a sizeable cosmetics business in Holland and Britain, he is also a dairy science graduate from UCC.

It is not clear what his dairy science qualifications have brought to IWP which has concentrated its attentions on cosmetics, but they should at least be useful to him in his new role as a non-executive director of Golden Vale.

He joins James Osborne as an outside director of the group, which is still however heavily dominated by farmers and executives. Mr Moran's no-nonsense Kerry blas will undoubtedly be an asset if he ends up dealing with Golden Vale shareholders, not all of whom have seen eye-to-eye with the group's top management in recent years, Golden Vale has had a dreadful few years, with profits warnings and the dismissal of chief executive Jim O'Mahony savaging the group's reputation in the market.

But with new chief executive Jim Murphy firmly getting to grips with the group's problems, Golden Vale has emerged as one of the best performers on the Irish market this year, with its share up 22 per cent at the end of 1997.

This is good news for Golden Vale shareholders, but not so good for the fund managers at Royal & Sun Alliance who sold their entire five per cent stake in Golden Vale last October at 75p and are nursing a paper loss of £1.8 million as a result of their decision to sell early.

The picture for Golden Vale has changed dramatically in the space of a year, with volume growth and margin improvement in the cheese operations and a new management structure probably putting an end to the profit shocks of recent years.

A prospective p/e of 14.5 still leaves Golden Vale a long way behind the rating enjoyed by Kerry and Avonmore Waterford Group - and rightly so. The company still has a lot to prove before its reputation in the market is fully restored, but at least it now seems to be on the right road.

It was the eve of Ireland's first game in the World Cup in 1994 when Golden Vale first shocked the market with a profits warning. Ireland might not be going to World Cup 1998, but fund managers planning a trip to France this July can probably rest easy that this time Golden Vale will not cause them worries in their absence.