Arla is set to reduce its standard litre price in the UK by 1.27ppl taking it to 33.74ppl. It cites negative trends in commodity markets as the reason behind the reduction.
The price fall in the UK come on the back of Arla’s reducing its global on-account milk price by €1.5 cents, with effect from April 28, 2014.
Commenting on the reduction, Ash Amirahmadi, Arla Foods UK’s head of milk and member services said: “Over recent months there has been a significant negative trend in commodity markets and, while the business remains strong, unfortunately, we are not immune from trends in the global dairy markets. Consequently, we have had to reflect some of the recent downward movements in the on-account price.”
Arla Foods is a global dairy company and co-operative owned by 12,600 dairy farmers circa 2,800 of whom are British. The company have production facilities in 11 countries and sales offices in a further 30, Arla is the world’s sixth largest dairy company and largest supplier of organic dairy products. Arla Foods UK is the largest dairy company in the country and is home to leading dairy brands Anchor, Cravendale, and Lactofree.
It processes 3.5 billion litres of milk a year and has a turnover of £2.2 billion. As well as being number one in fresh liquid milk, butter, spreads and cream. The farmer-owned co-operative is the UK’s largest cheese manufacturer. It has also built the world’s largest fresh milk facility located at Aylesbury and has plans for it to be the first zero carbon site of its kind.
The UK business has a team of approximately 4,000 employees located at its dairies, distribution centres and head office.