Company of the Month April 2021: Ornua reports record turnover for 2020

Pictured: John Jordan, CEO of Ornua

Ornua, the global leader in providing dairy products to consumers and manufacturers, is the Business & Finance Company of the Month for April 2021, in association with KPMG.

Founded in 1961 by an act of the Oireachtas, the agri-food cooperative initially known as the Irish Dairy Board, was tasked with the objectives to promote, facilitate, encourage, assist, coordinate and develop the exportation of milk and milk products. In 2015, the Board took on a new name, Ornua. Now, it is Ireland’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products and owns the enormously successful Kerrygold butter and cheese brand which was the first Irish food brand to exceed 1 billion euro in annual sales in 2018. In the United States, Kerrygold butter is now the second most popular butter nationally and has a 10 per cent market share. Ornua has plans to increase Kerrygold sales to 2 billion euro by 2025.

This month, Ornua reported record turnover and profits for 2020, in spite of the myriad challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the aftermath of Brexit and the expense of US tariffs, estimated to be somewhere in the region of 50 million euro. Ornua Chief executive, John Jordan, has called it ‘a unique performance in a unique year.’ With the tariffs now suspended, the company plans to reduce the price of their butter in response which in turn is expected to result in greater market share.

The company exports dairy products globally and is spread across 110 markets with a team of over 2,400.