FOR some of the big Irish companies such as Kerry, Greencore and IAWs, the past year has been excellent. It was somewhat less exciting for the likes of Avonmore and Dairygold and less exciting still for debt saddled Waterford.

But for Golden Vale it was a truly dismal year. It lost a chief executive, was hit with a big compensation award in the North for religious discrimination and also lost most of the few friends it had left among institutional investors.

For dairy farmers, the boom of 1995 and the first half of 1996 when milk prices reached record levels are but a dim, pleasant memory now being followed by an expected superlevy of over £33 million and a sharp fall in milk prices. The first ever revaluation of the green pound has hit farmer incomes further, while BSE converted Ireland into a 23 county Republic at least as far as Russian beef buyers were concerned.

Among the co ops, there has once again been any amount of talk but absolutely no action when it comes to rationalising an industry where there are still far too many players.

Mr Matt Walsh of Waterford and Mr Dan Buckley of Lakeland were the most vocal proponents of rationalisation in the industry, but neither chief executive has yet backed up his proposals with direct action on the merger front.

And, given the current gap in stock market valuations between Waterford and its most obvious merger partner Avonmore - £301 million against £163 million - there seems little chance of the Avonmore Waterford merger being revived in the short term.

Certainly, south of the Suir, Waterford management is unlikely to relish merging with a group from Kilkenny on which the market puts a much higher valuation.

But if there was little movement on the rationalisation front, the past year saw a historic breakthrough with farmers for the first time giving up voting control of the company which controls most of their business.

The fact that members of Kerry Co op stand to receive a £130 million windfall when the co op brings its stake in Kerry group from 52 per cent to 39 per cent was undoubtedly a material factor behind the enthusiastic endorsement by most of Kerry Co op's 6,000 shareholders for the restructuring.

Even so, Denis Brosnan, Hugh Friel and Denis Cregan had to fight hard to get their message across to shareholders as a substantial rump committed to retaining control of the plc mounted a rearguard action which was ultimately defeated.

The restructuring by Kerry was actually preceded by a similar move by the co ops' coop, IAWS Society, which voted to bring its stake in the IAWS Group to below 51 per cent.

While this restructuring gives both Kerry and IAWS huge financial muscle for further 50, it is expected that Kerry is more likely to use its new found freedom to cut its forecast end 1996 debt of £332 million with a hefty rights issue that could bring in upwards of £200 million.

The hiatus which saw Kerry shares fall sharply after a very modest earnings downgrade by company broker Davy is unlikely to have a major impact on Kerry plans for a rights issue.

IAWs has few worries over debt, but with Mr Philip Lynch saying that he could contemplate a £100 million acquisition, the freedom to issue equity will be welcome especially if any upturn in interest rates makes it more sensible to fund through equity than debt. That said, there is no indication yet of any significant upswing in interest rates, so IAWS is more likely to use debt and its hefty cash flow to fund acquisitions.

IAWS's big brother Greencore finally gave the markets what they were looking for with a substantial expansion into the North American sugar market. Greencore's £31 million investment for 27 per cent of Imperial Holly Corporation seems like a well timed and well priced acquisition, and one that reduces Greencore's dependence on its virtual monopoly of the Irish sugar market.

The markets have waited a long time for Green core to use its financial clout to make a big overseas move. The investment in Imperial Holly seems to have paid off already with the shares trading well above the price paid by Greencore.

Mr David Dilger came in for considerable criticism since his appointment as chief executive to make a big move but his patience now seems to have been rewarded,

Waterford Foods hit the headlines in 1995 with its £125 million acquisition of The Cheese Company. Even at the time of the acquisition, concerns were being expressed at the amount of debt that Waterford took on and those concerns have hardly abated in the past year.

Brokers are expecting year end gearing for Waterford to be well over 80 per cent and to be still over 70 per cent at the end of next year. Until that debt mountain is reduced and is seen to be reduced Waterford will have an uphill battle to restore ratings.

Gearing seems to be no problem for Dairygold - the one major dairy processor which has shunned the plc route and remained determinedly a co op. Even paying a premium milk price has not prevented Dairygold showing solid growth and the coop is now in a situation where it is being seriously mooted as a rescuer of Golden Vale, if the Charelville based group cannot sort itself out.

For Golden Vale, the past year has been one to forget and one that will not be remembered with any great fondness by former chief executive Jim O'Mahony - removed after it emerged that Golden Vale was going to be hit with £3 million of superlevy fines.

Whoever was responsible for Golden Vale being faced with a superlevy, the entire affair which saw Jim O'Mahony being replaced was a tawdry one that illustrated the deep divisions on both plc and co op board and also among the co op's sireholders.

Mr O'Mahony's replacement, Cheese Company operations director Jim Murphy, has an enormous task in front of him. Not only does he have to restore Golden Vale's financial fortunes but he must also try to unite a board and a membership that is riven with divisions and makes a sad joke of the co operative ethos.

Mr Murphy's appointment by a unanimous vote at least suggests that a board which divided so dramatically on the decision to remove Jim O'Mahony voted unanimously to appoint his successor.

Bitterness remains on the green pastures of Golden Vale but the divided parties seem to have decided to bury the hatchet to allow the new chief executive get on with his job.