Management in Kinisla say their focus will be on added value protein to grow the farmer-owned dairy business in the coming years.

Kinisla, the new name for Kerry Dairy Ireland, was officially unveiled at an event in Listowel today (Monday, May 18).

In December 2024, shareholders in both Kerry Group and Kerry Co-op voted to approve a €500 million deal for the co-op to acquire Kerry Group's dairy business, Kerry Dairy Ireland.

According to the business, the name Kinisla (pronounced ‘Kin-eye-la’), reflects "the two defining aspects of the business".

These are farmers, farm families, and employees; and the island of Ireland, particularly the "distinctive landscape" of the south-west, the business said.

Work on rebranding the dairy business has been underway for the past year.

Pat Murphy, chief executive of Kinisla, said that "Kinisla is a business of scale, momentum and substance".

"We are very confident that we will grow and develop this business in a way that will be hugely rewarding for our farmers and indeed all our stakeholders.

"We announced this morning an investment of €300 million in the next five years and the creation of 100 jobs," he said.

Murphy said the €300 million investment will focus on innovation and where the company thinks it can add value to the milk it gets from its farmer suppliers.

In particular this will focus on the company's dairy consumer foods and nutritional ingredients businesses.

Kinisla

Kinisla currently employs around 1,700 people in seven facilities across Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK.

"We have fabulous technologies inside in this business, we have great people and we have strong consumer brands and a fantastic source of a sustainable, high quality milk pool.

"We want to ensure that future generations of farmers will be proud to be associated with Kinisla," he said.

At the end of 2025, Kinisla had over 2,600 milk suppliers.

Farmers

Chair of Kinisla, James Tangney said being focused on added-value is "the only way we're going to return to farmers".

"It all has to come back to our milk suppliers and getting more money for our milk and adding value on the protein side of the business, adding value and returning that back.

"It's a two-sided coin, you have to return it back to the farmers, you also have to grow your business. We have proved in 2025 that we can do that," he said.

The Kinisla chair acknowledged that farmers are currently under pressure due to ongoing pressure on milk price and soaring input costs.

Tangney also spoke about the need to bring young people into the dairy sector against a backdrop of full employment in the country.

"There's huge investment in farming today to get young people into it. That's all about getting a good milk price. A good milk price is vital," he added.

Revenue

Kinisla saw revenue of €1.4 billion in 2025, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €86.6 million, an increase of 7.5% compared to 2024.

The company processed over 1.23 billion litres of milk in 2025, a 5.2% increase on 2024.

The business said its average milk price payment for 2025 was 53.25c/L, for a total milk cheque payout of €659 million.

Speaking at today's event, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said today marked a "significant moment for the business and indeed for the wider southwest region".

"A company that has shaped and supported generations of farming families and a company that is now positioning itself for a bright future by focusing on higher value growth, innovation, sustainability and investment.

"These important pillars are vital for the long-term resilience of Irish dairy," he said.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon also told those gathered that today's event offered a chance to reflect on "a very proud past" built on the work of farmers and employees, while looking ahead to the future.

"Today's announcement is all about confidence, confidence in the future of this business and the people behind it and in a wider context confidence in what we are doing collectively in the Irish dairy sector in terms of innovation, sustainability and investment," he said.