For John Moloney, the health-based side of Glanbia's business is the exciting stuff and nutrition is one of three areas singled out for future growth, writes Una McCaffrey

Glanbia chief executive Mr John Moloney is something of an expert in projecting an air of calm. His natural expression is one of gentle self-possession backed with a touch of circumspection, as if he can not quite work out why anybody would be interested in what he has to say, never mind want to record it in print.

He is particularly doubtful when it comes to personal details - he plays along with questions on interests and hobbies but it is hard not to think that he views the star-quality aspect of being a chief executive as a touch ludicrous.

And perhaps this is as it should be. Glanbia, after all, is a sum of many, many parts, just one of which is the man who stands at its helm.

If you want to see the group's leader get animated, talk about the milk market in Nigeria or Senegal, or the dairy farms of Idaho. Discuss the growing popularity of added-value health foods or the much-publicised LGG ingredient that goes into the company's yoghurt-based Everybody drink and he will really start talking.

For him, this health-based side of Glanbia's €2.3 billion business is the really exciting stuff.

Nutrition is one of three areas Glanbia has singled out for future growth, along with cheese and other consumer foods.

The company plans to spend up to $15 million on acquisitions in the area in the near future, a level of outlay which pales beside the $170 million it is sinking into the US cheese market, but which is significant nonetheless because of the high margins on offer in the sector.

The beauty of the expansion is that Glanbia plans to get to the peak of the nutrition sector through its existing cheese business, which is a massive producer of protein-filled, fat-free whey.

Mr Moloney believes that, with the right delivery systems, this whey could be channelled effectively as an ingredient in medical, clinical and sports nutrition.

The company has already set up its nutritional division as a standalone operation in preparation for the expected take-off.

Such development is central to the Glanbia that Mr Moloney wants to see developing over coming years. The company is still emerging from a fairly radical restructuring, which led to exceptional charges of €26.85 million in the first half of this year alone, as more traditional, unwanted businesses were sold and others repositioned.

Aside from feeling some regret at the permanent closure of the company's fire-stricken pigmeat plant at Roosky, Co Roscommon, Mr Moloney professes himself content with the changed structure, which he says leaves the company more "focused".

He points in particular to debt levels, which stand at about €250 million, down from €390 million just two years ago, as evidence of Glanbia's "good shape" going forward.

Mr Moloney's emphasis on borrowings is hardly accidental, with debt reduction taking on almost talismanic qualities at the firm over recent months.

The reason is simple enough - on one side you have a group of 1,400 radical dairy farmers who believe now is the time to reinstate Glanbia's co-operative status and, on the other side, the group's board argues that such a move would cost as much as €400 million and create crippling debt levels that would return the company to its troubled history.

Mr Moloney is diplomatic about the Fresh Milk Producers' (FMPs') crusade to change the structure of Glanbia (he says it strikes an "emotive chord") but his feelings on the matter are clear nonetheless.

He says farmers are well-represented at the upper levels of the firm but that pragmatism will always be the board's overriding policy.

"There is no revenue growth in the FMP proposition," he says simply, describing the suggested co-operative shift as "going backwards".

FMP, for its part, would reject this, with the group's leader, Mr Eamonn Bray, recently outlining his vision of a still-expanding group but one that concentrates more on the interests of the farmers at home rather than benefiting foreign producers.

Mr Moloney says the proposed model, which FMP argues would bring together all the best elements of co-ops around the world, would bring Glanbia "right back to where we were five years ago".

He places the FMP move against a context of radical change within the dairy industry, which is currently facing up to the Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy and a further shake-up of processing on the domestic scene.

He appreciates that farmers could feel threatened amid such upheaval, but says change must come, regardless of how the people at the coalface of the dairy industry might feel about it.

"What's critically important is that people understand the wider picture," he says. "The dairy industry is a global business whether we like it or not and we have to fight for our place in the world."

This globalising dynamic has seen Glanbia develop into the largest producer of cheese in the north-west of the US (soon to be the largest maker of American-style cheese in the whole country) and second-largest cheese producer in the UK. It is the second-largest producer of formulated milk products in the world.

Business is also growing in Mexico and parts of west Africa, where milk production is limited and opportunity for expansion vast.

One of the company's key international centres is in the US state of Idaho, where 180 dairy farms supply the same volume of milk as Glanbia's 4,500 farmer suppliers in the Republic. While the two are not really comparable in scale terms, Mr Moloney says it is clear that there is much space for "scaling up" on the farms back at home - a development that is fast-becoming more necessary than likely.

Change is also creeping up on Glanbia itself, with a report recently commissioned by the Government, in conjunction with dairy bodies recommending considerable consolidation among processors.

Mr Moloney says he is all for moving closer to his domestic competitors if it makes for a more efficient Glanbia but is cold on the idea of a "mega-merger" between the large players. He believes joint ventures should come at the bottom of the production pyramid, suggesting that if, for example, a new dying plant was needed, the multimillion spend could be shared.

Otherwise, he views local identity as something worth protecting. In the domestic market, consumer goods will be the central focus for Glanbia in the short term, particularly those that appeal to younger, more active markets.

Milk in a plastic bottle with a lid has been launched to compete with soft drinks, for example, while Everybody is reportedly making good inroads in a market previously dominated by Danone's Actimel.

Mr Moloney's faith in the Everybody product - he consumes one every day - is hard to knock and, for whatever reason, he looks the picture of health.