Saputo Dairy UK

Saputo Dairy UK
FormerlyDairy Crest plc
TypeLimited Company
LSEDCG
IndustryDairy Products
Founded1981
HeadquartersWeybridge, Surrey, United Kingdom
Key people
Tom Atherton
(President And COO)
ProductsCathedral City (cheese)
Clover
Petits Filous
Revenue£456.8 million (2018)
£71.4 million (2018)
£149.5 million (2018)
OwnerSaputo Inc.
Number of employees
1,097 (2018)
Websiteuk.saputo.com

Saputo Dairy UK Limited is a holding company for Dairy Crest Limited; a leading British dairy products company. It was created in May 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought out Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin off of the Milk Marketing Board. Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK, Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Clover.

Dairy Crest processed and sold milk (wholesale and via doorstep deliveries) and owned the milkshake brand Frijj until the sale of this part of the business to Germany’s Müller in December 2015. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange as Dairy Crest plc, until it was acquired by Saputo in April 2019. Saputo rebranded the company under its own name later that year.

History

Dairy Crest was established in 1981 as the milk processing arm of the Milk Marketing Board. The company launched Clover in the end of 1983, its dairy spread. The company established a joint venture in October 1991 with French dairy company Yoplait called Yoplait Dairy Crest (often abbreviated to YDC) which is 51% owned by Yoplait and 49% by Dairy Crest and which distributes Yoplait brand products in the United Kingdom.

It bought the Cathedral City brand of cheese from Mendip Foods Ltd in 1995. The business was privatised in August 1996 and Dairy Crest was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Logo of Dairy Crest

It acquired the dairy and cheese products division of Unigate in London in July 2000, and in November 2002 it acquired the St Ivel spreads company which had been based in Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire. It acquired the Country Life butter brand from the English Butter Marketing Company in September 2004. It acquired Express Dairies from Arla Foods in July 2006 for £33 million.

It sold the majority of its own label cheese business to its Scottish equivalent First Milk in October 2006 along with the creameries and factory that produce most of the products concerned. Dairy Crest bought St Hubert for £248 million in January 2007 securing the Cholegram, Le Fleurier, Omega 3 and Vallé brands.[citation needed]

Sale of milk business

A Dairy Crest Smith's Elizabethan Milk Float (January 2008)

Dairy Crest sold its doorstep milk delivery operations in the North West of England in July 2013 to Creamline Dairies who now operate the milk rounds from the depots in Warrington, Flixton, Stockport and Macclesfield and Mortons operate all those in Wirral, Chester and Liverpool. Dairy Crest announced a big slump in profits on 6 November 2014 which was down 95% to £900,000 in the six months to September.

The company agreed the sale of its entire legacy milk business which processes and distributes milk as well as the milkshake brand of Frijj to Germany’s Müller for £80 million to be combined with Müller’s existing subsidiary Müller Wiseman Dairies. The sale was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority on 19 October 2015, and the sale was completed on 26 December 2015.

Acquisition by Saputo

It was announced that Canadian dairy company Saputo Inc would be buying Dairy Crest on 22 February 2019.

The company was valued at £975m making each share worth 620p. The transaction was completed on 15 April 2019. At the time of the sale, Dairy Crest was the fourth largest dairy company in the United Kingdom based on turnover. Saputo renamed the business under its own brand in July 2019, though Dairy Crest Limited remained the principal legal entity.

Operations

The company supplies cheese, spreads and drinks. Cheese brands include Cathedral City, Davidstow Cheddar and Wexford. Spread brands include Clover, Country Life, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Willow. Spread and Frylight cooking spray production is consolidated at Kirkby. Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall has been run by the company since 1981.

At Truro Crown Court in December 2021, Dairy Crest admitted charges relating to a series of incidents of serious pollution between December 2015 and January 2021, including the illegal discharge of “biological sludge” and “suspended solids” from its creamery at Davidstow into the River Inny, Cornwall.

Crudgington Creamery was closed in May 2014 when production of spreads was concentrated at Kirkby while its research and development facility was transferred to an innovation centre built by the company at Harper Adams University. Plans for the creamery to close were first announced in September 2012.


This page was last updated at 2022-06-10 22:16 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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