Council to recognise role of dairy chief

Cavan County Council is to explore ways of celebrating the achievements that unpinned the tenure of outgoing Lakeland Dairies’ Chief Executive Michael Hanley.

Mr Hanley will retire this December following a distinguished career of 36 years, during which he led the transformation of the co-op to becoming the second largest dairy processor in Ireland, with annual revenues of £1.09bn.

Fine Gael’s Winston Bennett proposed marking the retirement at the October monthly meeting of elected members.

“It would be remiss not to thank him for all he had done for farmers,” said the local councillor and dairy farmer.

Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly agreed it was fitting given that Lakeland is one of the largest employers in the county.

From Strokestown, Co Roscommon, Mr Hanley had served as group chief executive at Lakeland since 2006, having previously held various senior management positions at the company since its formation in 1990.

He previously held the roles of deputy chief executive, general manager of Northern Ireland operations, general manager of dairy operations, and manager of member relations.

He spearheaded the original 1990 campaign that saw the merger of Killeshandra and Lough Egish Co-operatives, and led the largest ever dairy co-op merger in Ireland in 2019 - the combination of Lakeland Dairies and LacPatrick Dairies.