Our History

The foundation stone was laid for the new creamery in 1908 and opened the following year. The turnover for the first year of trading was £13,000. By 1924, the turnover had risen ten-fold, reaching £130,000.

Due to economic pressures a number of creameries amalgamated to form Tipperary Cooperative. The 1950's and 60'S were periods of stagnation in the dairy industry.

In 1972, the society acquired the Dairy Disposal Company’s interest in the Tipperary area. In that year, a new powder plant, service block, intake unit and laboratory were built at Station Road. It was at this time our milk suppliers moved to bulk milk collection. The building of the continental cheese factory began in 1980.

The 1990s also saw the acquisition of a cheese packaging and distribution business in France. This subsidiary trades under the name of Tippagral. During the early 2000s we developed a specialised food markets in the United States. As a result, the development expanded with the installation of a new cut-and-pack cheese facility. In 2006, our cheese plant was refurbished with the installation of a new highly automated Emmental cheese manufacturing plant.

In 2011, we made significant investments to CO2 reduction with the installation of a new natural gas line connecting Tipperary Cooperative to the national gas grid. As part of this investment, Tipperary upgraded its steam generation facility with the installation of two new natural gas powered steam boilers.

Tipperary Cooperative agreed the sale and transfer of Tipperary Co-op SuperValu to AG & Jacobs Ltd. In 2017, Tipperary Cooperative made the decision to build a new drying facility.

A highly technical dryer was designed to provide maximum functionality to the products we produce, built to pharmaceutical standards to future proof the facility.

In 2020, we completed our most significant investment to date, a €35m state-of-the-art evaporation, spray drying & packaging facility. We built a highly-automated plant with best-in-class process controls and live process trending facilitating the production of highly functional and infant grade milk powders. It was officially opened in 2021.