The UK figure is part of the £285 million (€335m) investment Arla is making at its sites around the world. It will support its global Strategy 2020 by moving more milk from bulk into branded, own label and foodservice sales. The overall investment is nearly a 50 per cent increase compared to last year (£192m/€227m in 2016) and the highest ever single-year supply chain investment in company history.
The £37.5 million will be spread across all its thirteen UK production, packing and distribution sites as well its logistics operation. The projects include:
• Taw Valley creamery, in Devon, will see £5m to further develop capacity and harnessing latest technologies and process to support product quality for its award winning cheeses such as Cheddar, Red Leicester and Double Gloucester.
• £5m at Stourton dairy, in Leeds, will see a number of projects that will include a new packing facility that will allow it to increase production of own-label flavoured milk.
• A significant proportion of the £3.5m at Arla’s state of the art fresh milk processing site in Aylesbury will go on new processing equipment for Arla B.O.B. The investment will allow the site to begin production of the successful and award-winning fat-free skimmed milk that tastes as good as semi-skimmed. It was one of the Arla innovations in added value milk launched in 2016, alongside Cravendale 250ml, Arla Organic and Arla Farmers Milk.
• The Westbury operation in Wiltshire, home to Anchor butter, will see £3m spent on supporting facilities to ensure continuous product production during planned essential maintenance.
Tomas Pietrangeli, Arla Food UK managing director said: “Last year, I unveiled the most ambitious UK business strategy to date to make Arla a household brand by 2020 and grow its revenue by nearly a third. This ambition is part of the company’s global strategy for growth and will position Arla as the champion of British dairy. By continually investing and improving our sites, we can ensure we grow capacity, maintain high quality of our products and ultimately return the best possible price to our farmer owners”.