What is next for Arla UK? Arla UK is Great Britain’s number one dairy company by turnover and milk pool, and further holds a leading position in milk, cheese, butter, and spreads in the country. Nearly one year ago Arla started production at the company’s new fresh milk mega-plant in Aylesbury, close to London and the capitals +10 million potential consumers. However, what is next for Arla UK? In this interview, Arla UK’s Senior Vice President, Head of Supply Chain, Dan Kolding indicates some of the company’s future plans in UK: Optimizations and innovations. By Anna Marie Thøgersen, Editor
Arla investing in UK During the recent 5-6 years, Arla UK has invested 500 million £ in the company’s dairy business and production in Great Britain. The by far largest single investment is 150 million £ on constructing the one-billion liter milk plant, Arla Aylesbury, the largest fresh milk dairy in the world. - Though we are still installing processing equipment at Aylesbury, the projects are running successfully, and we are following our recently updated plans, as we expect a full 1 billion liters milk production already in 2016. By now (phase one), we produce circa 500 million liters fresh milk, and soon starting a yearly equivalent of 150 million liters
of filtered milk, which is Arla’s own premium brand, Cravendale, explains Dan Kolding. In the near future, Arla UK wants to consolidate the company’s brands on the market, and no larger investments are planned except for much-needed investments in the packing departments of some of the Group's cheese plants.
Branding Arla brands In particular, cheese has been on the agenda, as Arla UK continuously work hard to increase this higher priced production. In addition, last year the company signed an important agreement with the large retailer Asda on
Arla UK recently launched a new highprotein and fat-free yogurt range, Arla® Protein.
an annually supply of 30,000 tons of Arla Cheddar. This doubled the Group's cheese production. Although, large UK retailers such as Sainsbury, Asda, Tesco and Morrison dominate the food retail-market with a 70% share of their private labels, leaving the remaining 30% to the food companies, Arla UK’s well-known brands (Arla®, Anchor Butter® and LURPAK®, Cravendale®, Castello® and Lactofree®) continues to gain market shares. - But dealing with the retailers own brands is absolutely also a lucrative market as many private labels in UK are premium products, explains Dan Kolding.
Launching new products In January this year, Arla launched a high-protein and fat-free yogurt range, Arla® Protein, on the UK market. This product-range is supposed to appeal to active, health-conscious consumers. The launch is also part of the company’s plans to make Arla a leading brand name in the UK. - Right now yoghurt is not a huge product category for Arla Foods in UK, but we are aware that consumers - like in continental Europe - are becoming more health conscious,
Dan Kolding, Arla UK Senior Vice President, Head of Supply Chain.
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MÆLKERITIDENDE 2015
NR. 6