Arla UK says it has delivered a small growth in revenue last year despite disruptions caused by the pandemic, labour shortages and market volatility.
Revenue grew by 2.6% to £2.17 billion and it delivered overall branded volume growth of 3.8%, the dairy co-op said on Thursday.
In the first half of 2021, performance was under-pinned by continued heightened in-home consumption as a result of the UK's Covid-19 lockdown.
Arla recorded strong branded volume growth, with notably Arla® and Starbucks™ continuing to consolidate their market share positions.
The latter half of 2021 welcomed the full reopening of the UK's foodservice sector, which led to a 19% branded volume growth for Arla UK’s foodservice business.
Ash Amirahmadi, managing director at Arla Foods UK, said that last year was 'tough' as the co-op had to navigate several external challenges.
"Like many others in the industry we faced disruption from Covid and from labour shortages," he said.
"But the biggest disruption has come from the unprecedented inflation, which is driving up the cost of operations across the supply chain.
"Against this challenging backdrop, we have performed well."
He added that the value of producing milk here in the UK was 'increasing like never before' due to the rising costs on-farm and across the supply chain.
This was combined with global demand for dairy causing European commodity prices to continue their strong development.
"This will be welcomed by our farmer owners who are also having to invest more to stay at the forefront of sustainable farming as they continue to be among the most climate efficient dairy farmers in the world,” he said.
After a record-breaking branded growth in 2020 due to the increase in home-cooking during the lockdown phases, several of Arla’s strategic brands continue their sales growth in 2021.
This includes Arla Cravendale® (6.7 percent), Arla Skyr® (12.5 per cent), and the yogurt brand Arla Protein® (38.0 percent).
The total Arla® brand grew 9.6 percent across the full range of products in 2021.
For the second consecutive year, Arla UK also grew its licensed sales of the Starbucks brand by more than 30 percent.
