Next stage in the ongoing restructuring of Nordmilch, Europe’s fifth-largest cooperative dairy in terms of turnover, will almost certainly be a stock market launch for the concern, if the go-ahead is given by members this June.

Going public has already been planned by the management, and this foresees the retaining of the cooperative ethos with all the current 11,000 farmer members receiving shares and keeping their votes within the concern.
Target of the reconstruction is the creation of more flexibility and capital towards increasing effectiveness and competitiveness on the international markets. Although the largest dairy in Germany in terms of milk handled (4,300 million kg in 2004), Nordmilch is still comparatively small league as far as exports are concerned, especially shipments outside of the EU.
In 2004, the last year for which there are complete figures, only milk powder sales over the German border kept export business looking good for Nordmilch with 80% of all powder produced (220,900 t) being exported. Cheese production comes next in the export league with 27% of production exported, a total of just over 141,680 t. But exports from other Nordmilch product sectors, including the important fresh milk products such as yogurts, are well below this.