Saputo Dairy UK Limited is a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
for Dairy Crest Limited, a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company
Saputo Inc
Saputo Inc. is a Canadian dairy company based in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1954 by the Saputo family. It produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream prod ...
bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the
Milk Marketing Board
The Milk Marketing Board was a producer-run product marketing board, established by the Agricultural Marketing Act 1933, to control milk production and distribution in the United Kingdom. It functioned as buyer of last resort in the milk market in ...
.
Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK,
Cathedral City Cheddar
Cathedral City is a brand of Cheddar cheese which is manufactured by Saputo Dairy UK in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Cathedral City's brand and logo is based on Wells Cathedral in Somerset.
History
Cathedral City is produced at Davidstow i ...
Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly,
Vitalite
Vitalite is a sunflower oil based spread, produced by Dairy Crest in Kirkby, Merseyside.
It began in 1983, being made by Kraft General Foods. In July 1996, it was bought by St Ivel, who were then bought by Dairy Crest in November 2002. In 2008, ...
and
Clover
Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...
.
Dairy Crest processed and sold
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...
(wholesale and via doorstep deliveries) and owned the
milkshake brand
Frijj
Frijj (stylised as FRijj) is a brand of milkshake sold mainly in the United Kingdom. Today it is produced by Müller (company), Müller. It was first launched in 1993 by Dairy Crest. Frijj is sold in five permanent flavours: strawberry, chocolate ...
until the sale of that part of the business to Germany’s
Müller in 2015. The company was listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
as Dairy Crest plc, until it was acquired by
Saputo in 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 Milk Marketing Board was a producer-run product marketing board, established by the Agricultural Marketing Act 1933, to control milk production and distribution in the United Kingdom. It functioned as buyer of last resort in the milk market in ...
.
In 1983, the company launched Clover, a dairy spread.
The company established a joint venture with
French dairy company
Yoplait
Yoplait ( , ) is the world's largest franchise brand of yogurt. It is jointly owned by American food conglomerate General Mills and French dairy cooperative Sodiaal.
History
In 1964, 100,000 French farmers agreed to merge six regional dairy coo ...
in 1981, called Yoplait Dairy Crest (sometimes abbreviated to YDC). YDC is 51% owned by Yoplait and 49% by Dairy Crest, and distributes Yoplait brand products in the UK.
In 1995, Dairy Crest bought the Cathedral City brand of
cheese
Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...
from Mendip Foods Ltd.
The business was
privatised
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
the following year and Dairy Crest was listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
.
In 2000, Dairy Crest acquired the dairy and cheese products division of
Unigate in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
and in 2002 bought the
St Ivel
St Ivel is a brand of dairy products in the United Kingdom, introduced in 1901 by the Yeovil-based dairy company Aplin & Barrett, for use on a range of their products.
The company was taken over by Unigate Dairy Company in 1960. Most production ...
spreads company, which had been based in
Wootton Bassett
Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...
in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
.
In 2004, it acquired the Country Life butter brand from the English Butter Marketing Company,
and
Express Dairies
Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.
History
The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the 'Express County Milk Supply Company,' so na ...
from
Arla Foods
, industry = Dairy
, predecessor = ArlaMD Foods
, founded =
, founder =
, location_city = Viby
, location_country = Denmark
, area_served = Worldwide
, key_people = Peder Tub ...
in 2006 for £33 million.
The company sold the majority of its own-label cheese business to its Scottish equivalent
First Milk in 2006, along with the creameries and factory that produce most of the products concerned. In 2007, Dairy Crest bought St Hubert for £248 million, securing the Cholegram, Le Fleurier, Omega 3 and Vallé brands, which were subsequently sold in 2012 to
Montagu Private Equity
Montagu is a mid-market private equity firm with a specialism in carve-out transactions and other first-time buyout investments. Montagu partners with companies with multi-million dollar enterprise values. Headquartered in London, Montagu also ha ...
for €430 million (£347 million).
Sale of milk business
Dairy Crest sold its doorstep milk delivery operations in the
North West of England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
in July 2013 to ''Creamline Dairies'' who now operate the milk rounds from the depots in
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
,
Flixton,
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
and
Macclesfield
Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...
and Mortons operate all those in
Wirral,
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. 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
Frijj
Frijj (stylised as FRijj) is a brand of milkshake sold mainly in the United Kingdom. Today it is produced by Müller (company), Müller. It was first launched in 1993 by Dairy Crest. Frijj is sold in five permanent flavours: strawberry, chocolate ...
milkshake brand, to Germany’s
Müller for £80 million, enabling it to be combined with Müller’s existing subsidiary,
Müller Wiseman Dairies Müller may refer to:
* ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (1823) (sometimes referred to as ''Müllerlieder''; ''Müllerin'' is a female miller) is a song cycle with words by Wilhelm Müller and music by Franz Schubert
* Doctor Müller, fictional character ...
. The sale was approved by the
Competition and Markets Authority
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the competition regulator in United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-com ...
on 19 October 2015, and completed the following December.
Acquisition by Saputo
It was announced in 2019 that Canadian dairy company
Saputo Inc
Saputo Inc. is a Canadian dairy company based in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1954 by the Saputo family. It produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream prod ...
would be buying Dairy Crest.
The company was valued at £975 million, 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 UK 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
Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...
, spreads and drinks. Cheese brands include
Cathedral City
Cathedral city is a city status in the United Kingdom.
Cathedral city may also refer to:
* Cathedral City, California, a city in Southern California, United States
* Cathedral City Cheddar, a brand of Cheddar cheese
* Cathedral City High Scho ...
,
Davidstow Cheddar
Davidstow Cheddar is a brand of Cheddar cheese manufactured by Dairy Crest, at the Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, alongside Cathedral City Cheddar.
Production
Cheddar has been produced at Davidstow for over 60 years, ...
and Wexford.
Spread brands include
Clover
Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...
, Country Life, Utterly Butterly,
Vitalite
Vitalite is a sunflower oil based spread, produced by Dairy Crest in Kirkby, Merseyside.
It began in 1983, being made by Kraft General Foods. In July 1996, it was bought by St Ivel, who were then bought by Dairy Crest in November 2002. In 2008, ...
and Willow.
[ Spread and Frylight cooking spray production is consolidated at ]Kirkby
Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...
. Davidstow Creamery
The Davidstow Creamery is a manufacturing plant in Cornwall; it makes ''Cathedral City'' mature Cheddar cheese. It is the largest cheese factory in the UK, and the largest mature cheddar plant in the world.
History
The site is on a windswept hill ...
in Cornwall has been run by the company since 1981.
At Truro Crown Court
Truro Crown Court is a judicial complex in Truro, Cornwall, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The courthouse was commissioned to replace the old Shire Hall in Bodmin. The site selected had previously been occupied by a former ...
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
Davidstow ( kw, Logdewi (village) and kw, Pluwdhewi (parish)) is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is north of Bodmin Moor straddling the A395 road about north of Camelford. The hamlets of Hal ...
into the River Inny, Cornwall. Fines of £1.52 million were imposed on the company in June 2022.
Plans for the Crudgington
Crudgington is a village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is situated in the civil parish of Waters Upton, a village to the north, and is 7 miles north-west of Telford. Nearby is the conflue ...
Creamery to close were announced in 2012. The Creamery closed in May 2014, when production of spreads was concentrated at Kirkby while the research and development facility was transferred to an innovation centre built by the company at Harper Adams University
Harper Adams University, founded in 1901 as Harper Adams College, is a public university located close to the village of Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire, England. Established in 1901, the college is a specialist provider of higher educat ...
.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Dairy products companies of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Surrey
Food and drink companies established in 1981
1981 establishments in the United Kingdom
British subsidiaries of foreign companies