The planned merger of Alpenmilch Salzburg Genossenschaft with Gmundner Molkerei has been called off. Instead, Gmundner Molkerei will deepen the partnership it has had since 2019 with the Jäger private dairy in Haag, Upper Bavaria. Jäger operates a pasta filata cheese dairy at the Gmunden site, which is supplied with 70m kg of raw material by the cooperative. Hermann Jäger has offered the cooperative an equal shareholding so that the Gmunden dairy will remain and the farmers will become co-owners of Milchwerke Jäger GmbH.
SalzburgMilch has broken off the merger talks with Gmundner Molkerei. This halt in negotiations has no effect whatsoever on SalzburgMilch – the company will continue on its path undeterred, according to Salzburg.
Apparently, the decision-making bodies were convinced by Jäger’s offer to secure the Gmundner Molkerei’s plant – in the case of a merger with SalzburgMilch, the milk would probably have gone to the latter’s plant in Lamprechtshausen. In addition, there is said to be a group of farmers at the Gmundner Molkerei who want to stick to tethering, which would be difficult to reconcile with SalzburgMilch’s premium philosophy.
In the next few weeks the articles of association for Gmundner/Jäger are to be finalised, after which they will be presented to the approximately 2,000 members at the co-op’s general meeting for a vote.
