Muller to invest £100m to develop new products using British milk

Muller said it wants to build a "vibrant future" for British dairy
Muller said it wants to build a "vibrant future" for British dairy

Dairy giant Muller will invest £100m over the next three years to develop a new generation of products, made from milk produced by British farmers.

Muller said it aims to strengthen in some parts of the dairy category, and expand into areas where it is not currently present.

Plans for expanding its yogurt and desserts business are guided by a category vision which identified a potential £233m of yogurt and desserts category growth by 2020.

To accommodate its plans, Muller aims to upgrade its three dairy processing sites in Shropshire, including doubling the size of the Telford facility by 2020.

It said it will also increase marketing spend by almost 25% over the next three years.

'Vibrant future'

Bergen Merey, Managing Director of Müller Yogurt & Desserts said it wants to build a "vibrant future" for British dairy.

“This unprecedented level of investment will ensure that we can offer an increasing portfolio of great yogurt and desserts products made in Britain with milk from British farmers, which meet the needs of our customers.

“Müller’s approach in the UK within the yogurt and desserts and milk and ingredients sectors, is to grow our capabilities so that we can reduce the UK’s dependence on imported dairy products, and build a vibrant future for the British dairy industry.”

'Huge opportunities'

The announcement comes just one week after the AHDB said there are "huge opportunities" for UK dairy.

But AHDB’s Head of Strategic Insight David Swales warned that to take advantage, UK industry would need to catch up with its global competitors with a targeted exports strategy and more competitive production base.

He said: “The key challenge for the whole industry is how we can become more competitive, improve efficiency, drive down costs and align supply chains effectively so we can take advantage of these opportunities.”

With the UK a massive net importer of dairy products, displacing some of these imports with domestic product was also identified as a big opportunity but requiring investment in processing capacity.