Müller is a German company producing a variety of dairy products, with headquarters in Fischach in the German state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. Aside from its German home market, Müller is also active on various markets around Europe and beyond. It is, for example, one of the best selling yogurt brands in the United Kingdom. The company achieved a turnover of €5.7 billion in 2019 and has more than 27,500 employees.

History

The Müller company was founded in 1896 in Aretsried, Bavaria. In 1971, the founder's grandson Theo Müller took over as the sole owner. Through a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with PepsiCo's Quaker Foods division, Müller entered the market in the United States in August 2012. The company's plant in the United States opened in Batavia, New York, in June 2013, and was the distribution hub for the United States. However, the company announced in December 2015 that it would close the plant. The plant reopened in July 2017, under new ownership by ''Alpina Foods'', but closed down again in January 2019.

Operations

The Müller group is one of the largest dairy groups in the world, with an estimated turnover in the dairy sector of around €3.3 billion (2013). In total, the group generates annual sales of around €5.7 billion (2019) and employs around 27,500 people worldwide (2019).

Dairy brands

The group includes a number of companies operating under the Müller name, including the original Molkerei Alois Müller GmbH & Co. KG and Müller Dairy (U.K.). It is best known for its range of

yogurt Yogurt (; , from , ; also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial Fermentation (food), fermentation of milk. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to ...

s, including the trademark 'Müller Corner', and fresh milk based drinks. The group includes subsidiaries with independent brands such as Müller, Müller Wiseman, Müller Quaker Dairy, Weihenstephan, Sachsenmilch and Käserei Loose. Private labels and basic dairy products such as

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

, UHT milk,

lactose Lactose is a disaccharide composed of galactose and glucose and has the molecular formula C12H22O11. Lactose makes up around 2–8% of milk (by mass). The name comes from (Genitive case, gen. ), the Latin word for milk, plus the suffix ''-o ...

powder and whey protein complete the portfolio. In addition to the companies operating under the Müller name, the group wholly or partly owns the Molkerei Weihenstephan, Sachsenmilch and Käserei Loose dairy companies in Germany, the Mlékárna Pragolaktos dairy in the Czech Republic, and Müller Milk & Ingredients in the United Kingdom.

Convenience foods

Since 2011, the group has also included ''HK Food'', which is one of Germany's leading manufacturers of convenience foods. Its product range includes chilled delicatessen salads, sauces and fish specialities from the ''Homann'', ''Nadler'', ''Livio'' and other brands of the Homann Group. The branch business from Nordsee was part of HK Food until October 2018.

Production sites

In Germany, beside the group headquarters in Fischach which also houses the Molkerei Alois Müller production plant, the group also operates significant production sites in Freising (Molkerei Weihenstephan), Leppersdorf (Sachsenmilch and Käserei Loose), Market Drayton (Müller Dairy (U.K.), and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

(Mlékárna Pragolaktos). The group had twenty five production sites worldwide by February 2017.

Sales offices and exports

The company has sales offices in Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Hong Kong. Müller also exports fresh dairy products of the Müller brand to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Croatia, Luxembourg, Austria, Russia, Slovenia, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates.

Support services

In addition to the milk processing subsidiaries, it also owns a number of ancillary marketing and transport companies. The group includes the packaging company Optipack, the logistics company Culina Group, and Müller Naturfarm.

Product ranges

Müller produces a substantial number of popular yogurt brands, including Müllerlight, Müllerice, Yogz and Müller Corner. * Müller FrütUp (German: ''Froop'') is a vanilla yogurt topped with fruit mousse. *Müller Corner (German: ''Joghurt mit der Ecke'', lit. ''Yogurt with the Corner''), launched in the 1980s, is a range of

s. There are three main varieties: ''Fruit'', ''Healthy Balance'' and ''Crunch!''. Within each of these divisions, a number of flavours are produced, for instance Fruit Corners are available in Blackberry & Raspberry, Blueberry, Cherry, Peach & Apricot, Raspberry and Strawberry flavours. The name "corner" is in reference to the design of the product. In many of the varieties, the yogurt is plain and unflavoured. It comes with an attached portion of 'flavour', fruit compote for example, to add to the plain yogurt. *Müller Rice (German: ''Müller Milchreis''), launched in 1980, is a creamy rice pudding based snack usually containing an additional flavoured sauce, such as

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

raspberry The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...

or caramel. Müller Rice is sold in a plastic pot, and can be eaten cold or heated in a

microwave oven A microwave oven, or simply microwave, is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces Dipole#Molecular dipoles, polar molecules in the food to rotate and ...

. It is marketed as being a healthy, filling and energy providing snack. Only available in Germany until 1989, it was introduced to the United Kingdom and is now widely available *Müllerlight is a brand of low fat

. Popular flavours include

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

, toffee and apricot. *Müller Little Stars are aimed at young children and marketed as being made of very few ingredients and being 100% natural. *Müller Vitality is a range of probiotic yogurts and yogurt drinks. *Müller Amore is a luxury yogurt range containing Greek honey. *Milk & More milkman household delivery of Müller Milk & Ingredients products including Müller Milk, Frijj, Black and White and Fresh 'n' Lo.

Animal abuse

In September 2024, ''The Independent'' released footage from dairy farms supplying Müller showing animal abuse and neglect. Workers were seen repeatedly hitting cows with metal chains and poles, with one employee observed jabbing a cow with a screwdriver. The RSPCA described the footage as "completely unacceptable".

Marketing and advertising

In December 2004, Müller released a new set of adverts using the song by Nina Simone, " Ain't Got No, I Got Life". In 2008, Müller introduced a new advert featuring their factory based in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, and emphasising the closeness of supply from the surrounding area of its factory in Market Drayton; "24 hours from farm to yogurt". In October 2011, Müller launched a new slogan, "Wünderful Stuff". This was backed by a new advertising campaign involving people being turned into various popular cartoon characters and also featured an appearance by KITT, which first aired on 8 October on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

, during that night's edition of ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

''. Müller was the main shirt sponsor for English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club Aston Villa as part of a two-year deal from 1993 until 1995, during which time they won the Football League Cup. The sponsorship ended when the club accepted a sponsorship offer from AST Research. The American singer Nicole Scherzinger has appeared in Müller adverts.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller Companies based in Bavaria Multinational companies headquartered in Germany Multinational food companies Multinational dairy companies Dairy products companies of Germany German brands Yogurt companies de:Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller#Molkerei Alois Müller GmbH & Co. KG