Dairy Farmers of Britain On The Up
04/02/05

Dairy Farmers of Britain, the leading dairy farmers' co-operative in the UK, reports a strong trading performance in interim results for the six months ended September 30 2004.

DFB, which markets almost 2 billion litres of high quality milk per year from more than 3,250 member-farms, reports increased turnover and profits.

Last year, DFB acquired Associated Co-operative Creameries for £78.8 million bringing in an additional three creameries and four dairies, including its site in Blaydon, Tyne and Wear which serves the north east and Cumbria.

This makes DFB the third largest milk processor in the UK, processing more than 1.3 billion litres of milk each year into 600 different dairy products. Each week we market nearly 40 million litres of raw milk, produce 600,000 pots of yoghurt, and sell milk on the doorstep to more than 725,000 households across England and Wales.

Interim results highlights include:

• Turnover up 22 per cent to £265 million (2003: £218 million)

• Profit before Tax up 47 per cent to £10.3 million (2003: £7 million)

Malcolm Smith, chief executive of DFB, said: “This is a strong set of results for the business. It has also been an important period for DFB strategically.

“Our goal as a business remains to provide a sustainable milk price and a profitable platform for growth for our members' dairy farming businesses and the acquisition of ACC gets us closer to achieving this objective.”

“The dairy market remains challenging. While we have continued to make huge progress, and we are playing a leading role in the much needed restructuring of our industry, to fully control our own destiny we need to continue to build the scale of our business.” 

“We need to improve efficiency and drive innovation, whilst simultaneously tackling the full integration of our food production businesses connecting our brands with the retail chain and the consumer. This task will take time but we have truly made an exceptional start.”