How was the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives for you and your organisation?
The International Year of Co-ops 2025 has been an unprecedented year of change within the SAOS membership.
Over the past year, we have helped several of our member co-ops through the process of merging their businesses. Each one of these has been a positive strategic step towards a stronger and more competitive business that is fit for the future needs of farmer members.
Farming co-op mergers are not uncommon, but this flurry of activity over the last 12 months speaks to wider change and challenges in the industry. Each case was driven by a proactive view for efficiency, to help support investment, and to operate more effectively in a marketplace that increasingly demands greater scale to compete.
Early in the year, Scotlean Pigs Ltd, Scottish Pig Producers Ltd, and Thames Valley Cambac Ltd merged to create United Pig Co-operative Ltd (UPC).
In the summer, Ringlink (Scotland) Ltd and Highland Business Services Ltd merged under the Ringlink banner.
And recently announced, Borders Machinery Ring (BMR) Ltd and Lothian Machinery Ring Ltd have merged under the BMR trading name.
Related: ‘Give us the tools, co-ops will finish the job’: Scottish farmers discuss collaboration
We are excited by the positioning and prospects of UPC, Ringlink, and BMR. These mergers strengthen competitiveness in a consolidating marketplace and offer greater value to members. Continued success of co-ops unlocks further opportunity and ensures value flows back to the farmer-owners within rural communities, rather than financial returns for remote shareholders.
While the sweet spot for operational efficiency can be elusive, there is no doubt that costs and financial pressures have increased significantly over the past few years and that maximising value and economies of scale is vital. There is a continued trend of consolidation within agriculture and the down-stream food and drink sector, which means scale is increasingly required, simply to remain relevant to customers, and also to enable new innovations that set businesses apart from their peers.
Though the recent flurry of mergers may be unusual, it seems inevitable that others will follow. Whilst not every discussion leads to a merger, each one stems from the best intentions to safeguard services and relevance to farmer producers for the future.
SAOS marked its 120th anniversary in 2025 and for those 120 years we’ve been on hand to help members through challenging times. Change is never easy, but when it is driven by the best intentions for farmer members it becomes a powerful force for progress.
