Arla Foods pledges over £300m investment to five UK sites

Arla Foods has announced new investments at four of its sites, bringing its total UK investment commitments in 2024 to over £300 million.

The dairy major made the commitment on the day of the UK Farm to Fork Summit in Downing Street on Tuesday.

In addition to previously announced plans for its Taw Valley site, Arla Foods will update and expand its dairies and creameries at Lockerbie, Stourton, Aylesbury and Westbury as it looks to create more opportunities for British milk and cheese production.

The cooperative, owned by thousands of European dairy farmers, including around 2,000 in the UK, currently operates nine production sites across the country making a range of milk, butter, cheese and other dairy staples.

Arla said the investments will see significant upgrades that secure the future of its sites and ensure they can continue producing world-leading products whilst adding the most value possible to the milk from its farmer owners. In Taw Valley, the investment will allow the business to capitalise on the potential for export around the world.

“What this means is that our farmer owners are investing in UK food security – as they are not only producing our milk, but they are backing this investment in our production sites,” Bas Padberg, managing director of Arla Foods UK, commented.

“Dairy plays a significant role in the UK economy, with sales of dairy products exceeding £8bn. On the day of the Farm to Fork Summit we are delighted to set out plans for continued vital investment in our business worth tens of millions of pounds, ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of food production and keeping the nation’s favourite dairy products on our supermarket shelves.”

Arla Foods UK board director, and Arla farmer, Arthur Fearnall, said: “We are incredibly proud of today’s announcement, which helps to futureproof the production of British dairy. We’re excited to see how the plans across our sites progress over the coming years, as we continue to work together to ensure all Arla farmer owners receive the best price for their milk.”

The investments illustrate the cooperative’s long-term commitment to producing cheddar at the Lockerbie Creamery and to continuing to produce award-winning cheese. New technology and significant upgrades will be implemented to allow the site to expand and grow over the coming years.

At Arla’s site in Stourton, the upgrades will expand Arla’s capabilities in extended shelf life (ESL) milk, particularly the Cravendale and BoB brands, as well as introduce a capability to supply milk in cardboard cartons. ESL is a filtered milk which stays fresher for longer, helping shoppers to reduce their food waste. As a result of the investment, the site will produce enough additional milk to fill the equivalent of 560 million bowls of cereal.

Aylesbury, which is the UK’s biggest fresh milk site producing more than 1 million bottles of milk daily, will get additional automated box packing capabilities, allowing customers to have greater flexibility with packaging formats.

The announcements come following the news in March that Arla will invest £179m in state-of-the-art technology at its Taw Valley creamery, creating 100 new jobs and enabling the business to export mozzarella that can be used for the likes of pizza toppings around the world. Further export opportunities will be explored after today’s announcement thanks to a new investment at Westbury which will see milk turned into powder for consumption in countries across the globe.

The announcements, together with plans for Taw Valley, mean that Arla has already pledged in 2024 to invest more than £300 million in its UK production sites.

“We must also ensure we have a robust food supply chain for the UK market – and this starts with ensuring we can continue to return a fair price back to our farmer owners. As one of the biggest food companies in the UK, it is only natural that we look for further opportunities to grow, which includes strengthening our export opportunities,” Padberg said.