EUROPEAN dairy co-operative Arla Foods is expanding in the UK by doing deals with more than 1,000 farmers to become co-owners, writes Philip Waller.
The Anchor and Lurpak butter maker said about 85 per cent of 1,250 farmers in the Arla Foods Milk Partnership had agreed to become full members.
Arla, which also supplies own-label milk and dairy products to supermarkets, hopes another 300 farmers will come on board by the end of this month.
The new recruits will join 1,600 UK farmer-owners already in the co-operative, which is owned by 12,500 farmers across Europe. UK chief executive Peter Lauritzen said: “It’s a big change in the industry because suddenly you will have a huge co-operative with more than 3,000 UK owners.”
The UK arm of the Arla group, which originated as a dairy co-operative in Denmark, merged with Express Dairies a decade ago and with Milk Link in 2012.
It has invested £500million in the UK since 2007 including moving all Anchor production to Britain and this year will open a new dairy in Aylesbury creating up to 750 new jobs. About 350 positions elsewhere are being axed.
Source: Express