AIRA doubles its turnover in the first five years of activity and invoices 206.5 million euros
In this first five years, AIRA has invested more than 33 million euros, most of them destined to the processing of milk from member farms. The Cooperative maintains the growth trend in all business areas and increases the volume of activity.
AIRA held this Thursday its Ordinary General Assembly in Taboada (Lugo) in which the accounts of this last year were presented to its partners and members and took stock of the first 5 years of trajectory since the integration process carried out in 2018. In this first five years of activity AIRA managed to double the turnover and presents a consolidated turnover of 206.5 million euros, with a continuous and significant growth during all the years.
The Cooperative continues to show itself as a leading company in full expansion phase. AIRA grew in all business areas, especially in those of reference for the agro-livestock sector, such as milk or feed. The Cooperative continues to maintain its commitment to enhance the value of production and to support the more than 2,900 members that make up the entity. “We continue to grow and we do so in all business areas, especially in the volume of activity of the feed mill and the dairy plant,” explains Daniel Ferreiro, general manager of AIRA.
AIRA achieved an EBITDA level of 7.2 million euros, which allows the Cooperative to face the volume of investments it manages. In these 5 years AIRA has invested more than 33 million euros. Dairy processing is one of AIRA’s clear priorities and 70% of the investments have been allocated to industrialization, especially to the dairy plant in Melide. Meanwhile, nearly 12 million euros have been invested in other activities of interest to the Cooperative. “In 2023 alone we plan to allocate another 5 million euros to investments,” Ferreiro explained.
In the last year, some of the most important projects have been the construction of a new workshop for the Cooperative’s mixer wagons and a new gas station, which are still in the construction phase.
The Cooperative closed this last fiscal year with pre-tax profits of 4.2 million euros, of which more than 50% will be capitalized to the members.
Milk and feed, AIRA’s driving forces
The commercialization of milk from partner dairy farms continues to be one of the priorities and one of AIRA’s driving forces. In 2022, AIRA marketed a total of 115 million liters of milk, compared to 91 million liters of milk managed in 2018, when the Cooperative integration process was formalized. Moreover, in these 5 years, AIRA went on to transform 55% of this milk in the dairy industries in which it participates. “The transformation of milk is one of AIRA’s priorities and one of the lines in which we are going to continue adding efforts”, ratified Ferreiro in the assembly.
Livestock feed manufacturing is another of the main activities of the Cooperative. In these 5 years, AIRA has managed to double the volume of production and only in 2022 more than 270,000 tons of feed and wet mixes were manufactured, figures that keep it as one of the main feed factories specialized in dairy cattle in Spain.
Digitization of farms
The Cooperative is also devoting significant efforts to contribute to the digitization of farms, with specialized programs such as TRAC PLUS, which, in addition to providing useful tools for livestock farms, aims to certify the entire process from the farm to the consumer, with complete traceability. “We try to respond to the demands that are presented to the partner farms from Europe”, explains Ferreiro.
In addition, AIRA farms continue to collaborate in different projects for the analysis of the carbon and water footprint, in order to remain committed to sustainable production.
