News

Arla adds £95 million of value

22 Mar 2017

Added value milk products by Arla Foods UK successfully added £95m in value to the category in 2016, the company has announced, with 1.5 million shoppers trading up from standard fresh milk to an Arla branded product offering additional benefits.

Added value milk products by Arla Foods UK successfully added £95m in value to the category in 2016, the company has announced, with 1.5 million shoppers trading up from standard fresh milk to an Arla branded product offering additional benefits.

From vitamin-enriched milks, to fat-free skimmed milk that is said to taste as good as semi-skimmed, the success of Arla’s growing range of innovative products points to changes in attitudes to milk, the company believes, as consumers are now able to choose a drink that matches different lifestyles, occasions and needs.

This trend is consistent across the total milk category, according to Arla, as 5 million consumers traded up to added value milk options in 2016 and is having a direct impact on performance. In 2015, Arla notes that the category declined £148m but only £23m in 2016 with improvement on pricing and retailers supporting new and existing add-value milk.

The change has, said the company, been most noticeable with Arla’s portfolio – without it, the overall category would have declined £118m in 2016. The £95m is the value of all the sales of Arla’s value-added milk in 2016, minus the value sales figure if they were sold at the price of standard fresh.

Arla branded milk grew 12% in 2016 with successful launches of the award-winning Arla B.O.B, Arla Farmers Milk, Arla Organic Farm Milk and Arla Cravendale 250ml. In addition, Arla says it has worked closely with its retailer customers to provide greater choice for consumers, with products such as ASDA Vitamin D Milk and launched in 2015, Morrisons Milk for Farmers.

“Innovation is at the core of everything we do and it is fantastic to see consumers respond so well to it and change their attitudes to milk,” said Tomas Pietrangeli, managing director, Arla Foods UK. “Milk has always been a nutritious staple for British consumers, but it is exciting to see people increasingly view it as more than that - a desirable, versatile drink suitable for different occasions and with different benefits. This is reinvigorating the category and driving value for our farmer owners.”

This focus on innovation is an important part Arla’s most ambitious business strategy to date, the company said. The UK Strategy 2020 plan aims to make Arla a household brand by 2020, grow its revenue by nearly a third and position Arla as the champion of British dairy.