The company was created by the merger in 1980, between the British dairy group Express Dairies and the British subsidiary of Arla Foods, a SwedishDanishdairy production co operative, jointly owned by Swedish and Danish farmers. The parent company, Arla Foods Amba, initially held a 51% stake, but acquired the rest of the company's shares in April 2007. In Britain, Arla supplies milk to retailers, and produces many household brands such as Lurpak, Anchor Butter, Cravendale, Lactofree and Castello.
Name
The company name Arla is an archaic Swedish term for saying "early ". Arla was originally chosen as the name of the Swedish company as Stora arla gård, "Great Arla Farm" in County Västmanland, Sweden, was one of the early founding members of today's cooperative.
History of parent
was formed as the result of the merger of Swedish dairy cooperative Arla, and the Danish dairy company MD Foods in April 2000. Swedish Arla derived from an early dairy producing cooperative, originally called Mjölkcentralen founded in 1926 in Stockholm. Danish MD Foods was the result of the merger in May 1999 of Kløver Mælk and MD Foods. MD originally stood for Mejeriselskabet Danmark. In 2000, Arla and MD Foods merged and the new company was headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark. Arla Foods is today owned by approximately 10,600 milk producers in Denmark and Sweden.
Products
Arla is the largest supplier of fresh milk and cream in the United Kingdom, producing over 2.2 billion litres of milk every year. It produces two premium milk brands — Cravendale filtered milk, which undergoes a filtration process to remove bacteria before pasteurization; and Lactofree milk, from which lactose is removed, making it suitable for most lactose intolerant people. Following the success of Lactofree milk, Arla introduced a range of Lactose free products, including cheese and yoghurt. As well as fresh milk, Arla now produces in the United Kingdom, both the Lurpak and Anchor butter brands. This was not widely publicised by the company, even though the brands had been established over decades as brands for butter imported from Denmark and from New Zealand respectively. Other products include fromage frais, yoghurts and the blue cheesesRosenborg and Danish Blue. The firm also produces fruit juice.
Locations
The company has processing plants in England at Palmers Green, Stourton, Settle, in Scotland at Lockerbie and Malpas, Cheshire. In January 2009, Arla Foods UK ceased production at the dairy in Manchester. The company also operates the world's largest milk processing plant in Aylesbury, which was opened on 24 May 2014. In 2016, Arla Foods obtained the Westbury Dairies site, located in Westbury, Wiltshire, becoming the primary location for the production of the Anchor Butter and Spreadable brands.
Compensation
According to the BBC, farmers are paid less per pint of milk by Arla than by supermarkets that buy directly.
