Saputo Dairy UK

Saputo Dairy UK, the trading name of Dairy Crest Limited, is a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the Milk Marketing Board.[2][3] Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK, Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite, Wensleydale and Clover.

Dairy Crest processed and sold milk (wholesale and via doorstep deliveries) and owned the milkshake brand Frijj until the sale of that part of the business to Germany's Müller in 2015. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange as Dairy Crest plc, until it was acquired by Saputo in 2019.[4]

History

Dairy Crest was established in 1981 as the milk processing arm of the Milk Marketing Board.[5] In 1983, the company launched Clover, a dairy spread.[5] The company established a joint venture with French dairy company Yoplait 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.[5]

In 1995, Dairy Crest bought the Cathedral City brand of cheese from Mendip Foods Ltd.[5] The business was privatised the following year and Dairy Crest was listed on the London Stock Exchange.[5]

In 2000, Dairy Crest acquired the dairy and cheese products division of Unigate in London,[5] and in 2002 bought the St Ivel spreads company, which had been based in Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire.[5] In 2004, it acquired the Country Life butter brand from the English Butter Marketing Company,[5] and Express Dairies from Arla Foods in 2006 for £33 million.[6]

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.[7] 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 for €430 million (£347 million).[8]

Plans for the Crudgington Creamery to close were announced in 2012.[9] 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.[10]

Sale of milk business

Dairy Crest sold its doorstep milk delivery operations in the North West of England in July 2013 to Creamline Dairies who now operate the milk rounds from the depots in Warrington, Flixton, Stockport and Macclesfield and Mortons operate all those in Wirral, Chester and Liverpool.[11] 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.[12]

The company agreed the sale of its entire legacy milk business, which processes and distributes milk, as well as the Frijj milkshake brand, to Germany's Müller for £80 million, enabling it to be combined with Müller's existing subsidiary, Müller Wiseman Dairies. The sale was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority on 19 October 2015,[13] and completed the following December.[14]

Pollution

At Truro Crown Court 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 into the River Inny, Cornwall.[23] Fines of £1.52 million and costs of £272,747 were imposed on the company in June 2022.[24] It was reported that there was a possibility that the royal warrant could be removed as a result of the pollution.[25]

In 2025 the company said it was making the switch from producing demineralised whey and galacto-oligosaccharides, which it began producing in 2013 in order to return to the production of sweet whey powder.[26]

The Environment Agency cited the Davidstow site as a persistently poorly performing site in the 2024-25 Chief Regulator’s report.[27] The Environment Agency has initiated a consultation process for a new permit aimed at the Davidstow creamery. This new permit aims to introduce environmental improvements and allow an increase in cheese production.[28]

More broadly, as the operations are dependant on intensive dairy farming, there is a strong link with the decline in the health of local river systems. The EA has also confirmed that the dairy industry is the largest single cause of agricultural pollution, accounting for the majority of all serious pollution incidents caused by agriculture. The majority of such pollution incidents relate to the mishandling of dairy slurry and silage.[29]

The company has also polluted other rivers in the UK. Pollution in 2023 and 2025 in a tributary of the River Ure was caused by a faulty drainage system at its Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes.[30]

Saputo's other international subsidiaries have also been prosecuted for pollution. An accident at a facility in Tulare, California on June 22, 2018, led to the release of 5,690 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. Owned by Saputo Cheese USA Inc. the facility produced mozzarella cheese and whey protein concentrate.[31] In total, Saputo subsidiaries in the USA have been fined on at least nine separate occasions by government agencies for environmental breaches since 2001.[32]

type	Limited Company
former name	Dairy Crest plc
foundation	1981
location	Weybridge, Surrey, United Kingdom
key people	Steve Douglas (COO)
industry	Dairy Products
products	Cathedral City (cheese) Clover Petits Filous
revenue	£456.8 million (2018)‡R1R‡
operating income	£71.4 million (2018)‡R1R‡
net income	£149.5 million (2018)‡R1R‡
num employees	1,097 (2018)‡R1R‡
owner	Saputo Inc.
homepage	http://uk.saputo.com/

History

Sale of milk business

Pollution

External links

References

Acquisition by Saputo