{{Short description|Irish agri-food co-operative}} {{more citations needed|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox company | name = Ornua Co-operative Limited | logo = Ornua logo.svg | logo_size = 250 | caption = | former_names = The Irish Dairy Board (1961–2015) | type = Statutory agricultural cooperative | genre = | fate = | predecessor = Butter Marketing Committee | successor = | foundation = {{Start date and age|1961}} | founder = Government of Ireland | defunct = | location_city = Dublin | location_country = Ireland | location = Grattan House, Mount Street | locations = | area_served = Worldwide | key_people = | industry = Food retail | products = | services = | revenue = €2.3 billion (2014)<ref>[http://www.ornua.com/ Company Profile] ''Ornua''. Retrieved: 22 May 2011.</ref> | operating_income = €30.2 million (2014)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ornua.annualreport14.com/img/Ornua--Annual-Report--2014.pdf |title=Archived copy |website=ornua.annualreport14.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307123950/http://ornua.annualreport14.com/img/Ornua--Annual-Report--2014.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-07 |url-status=}}</ref> | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owners = {{unbulleted list| * Tirlán * Dairygold Co-operative Society Limited * Lakeland Dairies Co-operative Limited * Arrabawn Co-operative Society Limited * Aurivo Co-operative Society Limited * North Cork Co-operative Creameries Limited * Tipperary Co-operative Creamery Limited * Carbery Creameries Limited * }} | num_employees = 3,300{{when?|date=March 2026}}{{fact|date=March 2026}} | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = {{URL|http://ornua.com/|ornua.com}} | footnotes = }} thumb|Car advertising Kerrygold Butter in Denver '''Ornua''', from the Irish "Ór Nua" meaning "new gold" (known as '''The Irish Dairy Board''' from 1961 until 2015), is an Irish agricultural cooperative, which markets and sells dairy products on behalf of its members: Irish dairy processors and Irish dairy farmers. The co-operative is Ireland's largest exporter of Irish dairy products and owns the Kerrygold butter and cheese brand<ref>Ornua Kerrygold.com. Retrieved: 22 May 2011.</ref> as well as Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur. In addition to the Kerrygold brand, its brand portfolio includes Pilgrims Choice, Dubliner, Shannongold, and BEO milk powder.
==History== The Irish Dairy Board was established by an act of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament), the Dairy Produce Marketing Act 1961,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1961/en/act/pub/0001/index.html |title=Dairy Produce Marketing Act, 1961 |work=irishstatutebook.ie |year=2011 |access-date=18 December 2012}}</ref><ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://www.kerrygold.de/unternehmen/kerrygold-historie.html|title=Kerrygold Historie|publisher=Ornua Deutschland|accessdate=2018-03-12}}</ref> and replaced the earlier Butter Marketing Committee.<ref>{{cite web |title=DAIRY PRODUCE (PRICE STABILISATION) ACT, 1935. |url=https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1935/act/21/enacted/en/print.html |website=www.irishstatutebook.ie |access-date=19 July 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=S.I. No. 354/1935 - Butter (Levy and Bounty) Order, 1935. |url=https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1935/sro/354/made/en/print |website=www.irishstatutebook.ie |access-date=19 July 2024 |language=en}}</ref> It was created to centralise the overseas marketing of Irish dairy products to achieve economies of scale and greater brand recognition. At the time of the Board's creation, the European Economic Community's market was closed to Irish butter, and the United Kingdom market limited Irish imports by an import quota. Tony O'Reilly was appointed General Manager in 1962 and announced to the board in July the plan to launch a new consumer brand to grow exports of butter.<ref name="cooper2015">{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Matt |title=The maximalist : the rise and fall of Tony O'Reilly |date=2015 |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |location=Dublin |isbn=978-0-7171-6721-0 |pages=62–67 |url=https://archive.org/details/maximalistrisefa0000coop/page/62/mode/2up}}</ref>
The name Kerrygold was selected to evoke "farming, naturalness, goodness and above all quality milk" as well as a sense of Irishness.<ref>[http://www.kerrygold.com/intl/index.jsp?1nID=93&2nID=97&3nID=97&4nID=97&5nID=97&6nID=97&pID=97&nID=143 The Creation of the Kerrygold Brand] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713144354/http://www.kerrygold.com/intl/index.jsp?1nID=93&2nID=97&3nID=97&4nID=97&5nID=97&6nID=97&pID=97&nID=143 |date=13 July 2011 }} ''Kerrygold.com''. Retrieved: 22 May 2011.</ref> In October 1962, the Board successfully test-launched the Kerrygold brand in the Winterhill area of North West England.{{fact|date=March 2026}}
When Ireland joined the EEC in 1973, the Board began expanding its presence to continental Europe, beginning with the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany. By 1982, Kerrygold had national distribution in Germany.{{fact|date=March 2026}}
In 2014, the Spanish cheese manufacturer Luxtor, previously a subsidiary of the system catering chain Telepizza, was taken over.<ref>[http://www.topagrar.com/news/Rind-Rindernews-1544685.html Irish Dairy Board übernimmt spanischen Käsehersteller] - top agrar online, 9. September 2014</ref>
On 31 March 2015, the Board assumed a new corporate identity as Ornua: "The Home of Irish Dairy".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Irish Dairy Board votes to change name to Ornua |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/irish-dairy-board-votes-to-change-name-to-ornua-1.2114668 |access-date=2022-09-14 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref>
thumb|Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur As of 2015, Ornua operated from 19 subsidiaries worldwide,<ref>https://www.ornua.com/ornua-the-home-of-irish-dairy-reports-profit-before-tax-up-23/</ref> with pre-packing and blending facilities located in Germany, Great Britain, the United States and the Middle East. A €36m Kerrygold butter production and packing plant (Kerrygold Park) was constructed in Mitchelstown, County Cork.{{when?|date=March 2026}} In 2020, Ornua announced an investment of £3m in its Leek production facilities, to boost capacity in response to greater consumer demand for its cheese products and bringing total annual production to more than 110,000 tonnes<!-- Metric "tonnes" presumably? Which tonnes? -->.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Addy|first=Rod|title=Ornua Foods UK invests £3m in Leek factory|url=https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2020/11/02/Pilgrims-Choice-supplier-Ornua-Foods-invests-3m-in-cheese-production|website=Food Manufacture|date=2 November 2020 }}</ref>
As of 2019, Kerrygold was the second highest-selling butter in the United States and the highest-selling butter in Ireland. Kerrygold experienced "double-digit growth almost every year" from 2009 to 2019.<ref name="highestselling">{{cite news |last1=Dunn |first1=Elizabeth G |title=Irish Butter Kerrygold Has Conquered America's Kitchens |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-10-02/how-irish-butter-kerrygold-conquered-america-s-kitchens?srnd=premium-europe |access-date=2 October 2019 |work=Bloomberg Businessweek |date=2 October 2019}}</ref>
==Awards== The Irish Dairy Board was awarded Exporter of the Year by the Irish Exporters in 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.independent.ie/farming/news-features/idb-by-numbers-2648518.html |title=IDB by numbers |work=independent.ie |date=17 May 2011 |access-date=18 December 2012}}</ref>
==See also== * 1986–1988 radioactive milk distribution in Mexico, involving the Irish Dairy Board
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://ornua.com/ Official website]
{{Butter}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Marketing boards Category:Agricultural marketing cooperatives Category:Agriculture in the Republic of Ireland Category:Dairy products companies of Ireland Category:Co-operatives in Ireland Category:Co-operatives in the Republic of Ireland Category:Food and drink companies based in Dublin (city) Category:Irish brands