Mustoe makes his mark with First Milk plans

BILL Mustoe, the recently appointed chairman of First Milk, is stamping his authority on the co-operative, making two major announcements yesterday aimed at encouraging and involving its farmer members.

First, he said the group, which has about 2,600 producer members, would compensate farmers who were unable to get their milk off their farms during the recent severe weather.

"We have taken this approach because it is the right thing to do," Mustoe said.

However, this will be a one-off situation and it will apply only to those who did not have insurance cover for such an eventuality.

Compensation will cover milk losses, less 50, in recognition of the costs incurred by those members who have paid for insurance. Most of the weather-related losses were in Ayrshire and west Wales.

Mustoe also announced that he wanted the First Milk board to benefit from the expertise of members with "proven commercial acumen".

This move could see a reduction from six to three in directly elected directors, the other three being appointed from names that come forward from the overall membership. This requires an amendment to the rules of First Milk, which will be put forward for vote at the autumn AGM.

At present, First Milk's 26-strong local representative group is responsible for electing farmers into the six farmer positions on the board, but the new chairman is keen to broaden his talent pool to the entire 2,600 membership.

"We have some strong farmer directors on the board, but we need a board packed with people with proven commercial acumen," he said. "I want to be able to look around the boardroom table and see a group of people with broad experience and strong business contacts that are coming up with constructive ideas to improve returns."