GLANBIA HAS sold its pigmeat business in a €35 million management buyout to focus on its cheese and nutritional ingredients interests.

The management team of Glanbia Meats Ireland, led by chief executive Jim Hanley, will take charge of the business, which will operate under the name Rosderra Irish Meats Group.

Niall Leydon, the head of operations, Michael Slevin, head of human resources, and Andy Fleming, head of strategy and finance, were also part of the buyout team. The total consideration of €35 million includes the proceeds of Glanbia's insurance policy for assets destroyed by fire at its pig processing plant in Edenderry, Co Offaly, last August.

Glanbia will record a loss of €20.5 million in its 2007 financial statements relating to the exit from pigmeat, including the sale of its Co Roscommon cannery site, which it closed in late 2006.

Glanbia managing director John Moloney said it would invest the proceeds of the disposal in its key growth areas of cheese and nutritional ingredients.

Mr Hanley said Rosderra Meats, now the dominant player in the Irish pigmeat industry, recognised "the challenges inherent in the business", which include higher input costs due to rising grain costs.

The IFA said Rosderra should immediately pass on price increases received on world pigmeat markets to Irish pig producers. "Rosderra must seize the opportunity to inject some confidence back into the flagging pig industry at this time of crisis," said spokesman Michael Maguire.