Ornua has confirmed that Bernard Condon, the managing director of the co-op's global ingredients division has decided to leave "to take up a new opportunity".

Condon has been a member of Ornua’s executive leadership team since 2017.

He previously held the roles of chief executive of ingredients Europe and director of dairy trading and ingredients in the co-op.

Conor Galvin, Ornua chief executive, acknowledged the part played by Condon in leading the growth of the company’s global ingredients business.

"Throughout his career with the business, Bernard has established a strong culture of customer-focused innovation, that has enabled the success of our Ingredients businesses across the globe and developed strong relationships with all of our member co-operatives.

"On behalf of Ornua, I would like to sincerely thank him for his contribution and wish him every success for the future.

"Bernard will continue to work closely with the business and leadership team in the coming months as we progress transition plans," he said.

In other news, the Ornua Purchase Price Index (PPI) and the indicative per-litre price for milk are both unchanged on the figures for January.

In an announcement yesterday (Wednesday, March 5), Ornua said that the PPI stood at 161.9 for February, stable versus January.

After deducting the estimated processing costs of 9.5c/L (the same figure used for January), the PPI figure implies an indicative return of 48.3c/L, inclusive of VAT at 5.1%, at standard constituents of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.

This price is unchanged from the price announced last month for January.

Ornua said the figure reflects “stable market returns for the month of February”.

Ornua’s estimated member processing costs are based on the average of processing the Ornua ‘basket of products’ which is “not representative” of any individual member co-op processor.