Arla® Big Milk: launch of UK’s first fresh milk enriched with essential nutrients

Arla Foods, the farmer-owned dairy company, today unveiled Arla Big Milk, the UK’s first fresh milk enriched with essential nutrients to help support children’s growth and development as part of their balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.

Arla Big Milk has been developed to specifically meet the needs of children from ages one to five¹, made with 100 per cent British whole cows’ milk finely filtered for freshness and includes:

• Calcium – naturally rich in calcium needed for normal growth and development of bones in children;
• Added Vitamin D for normal growth and development of bones in children;
• Added Iron that contributes to normal cognitive development of children; and
• Added Vitamin A which contributes to a toddler’s normal development and growth, keeping eyes, skin and the immune system healthy.

The creation of Arla Big Milk is part of Arla’s strategy to support British farmers by developing innovative products to add value to the milk category. It follows the recent launch of Arla Protein and Arla Skyr into the UK market; all three products reflect the company’s aim to make Arla a UK household name brand and dial-up the inherent naturalness of dairy.

Stuart Ibberson, Category Director, Arla, said: “This is a truly innovative fresh milk product and we developed it after identifying a gap in the market to support parents making the switch to fresh cows’ milk as well as working with a range of experts.Being owned by farmers, it’s also important that we make the most from their milk.”

Arla Big Milk is now available in leading supermarkets in a 2 litre format with an RSP of £2.25 and will be supported with an initial £2m integrated marketing campaign that is specifically targeted at parents of toddlers with a campaign strapline ‘Let ‘Em Go Big’.

The campaign will include print advertising, in-store promotions, working with industry experts and commentators and a partnership with Mumsnet, the UK’s biggest network for mums as well as a dedicated digital and social media campaign.

Notes to Editors:

¹The Department of Health recommends that children at the age of one move onto fresh whole cows’ milk and that their diets are supplemented with additional Vitamin, A, D and Iron.

²Whole milk, Iron, Vitamin D and Vitamin A.

³Nutritionist, Charlotte Stirling-Reed, Arla Strategic Innovation Centre, Leatherhead Food Research and Campden BRI.

Big Milk nutritional information:

TYPICAL VALUES        PER 100ml

Energy (kJ/kcal)            282kJ/68kcal

Fat                                 4.0g

    of which saturates     2.6g

Carbohydrate                4.7g 

     of which sugars        4.7g

Protein                           3.4g

Salt                                0.1g

Vitamin A                      65µ (00.0% RI*)

Vitamin D                      2.15µ (00.0% RI*)

Calcium                        122mg (15.3% RI*)

Iron                               1.2mg

The EU Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (EU FIC) currently provides only for the use of adults’ reference intakes (RIs).In May 2013, the Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition (SACN) concluded that one set of RIs for children could not adequately reflect the variation in energy level requirements and nutrient recommendations for different childhood ages and stages of development - Department of Health, December 2013.

About Arla Foods

Arla Foods is a global dairy company and cooperative owned by 13,500 dairy farmers, circa 3,000 of whom are British.

Dating back to 1881, Arla’s purpose is to secure the highest value for its farmers’ milk, while creating opportunities for their growth. With production facilities in 11 countries and sales offices in a further 30, Arla is the world’s sixth largest dairy company and largest supplier of organic dairy products. Arla has a total of more than 18,000 colleagues and its products are sold under the well-known brands Arla®, Lurpak® and Castello® in more than 100 countries.

In the UK, Arla is the largest dairy company in the country and is home to leading dairy brands Anchor, Cravendale, and Lactofree. It processes 3.5 billion litres of milk a year and has a turnover of £2.2 billion. As well as being number one in fresh liquid milk, butter, spreads and cream, Arla is the UK’s largest cheese manufacturer. It has also built the world’s largest fresh milk facility located at Aylesbury and has plans for it to be the first zero carbon site of its kind. The UK business has a team of approximately 3,500 colleagues located at its dairies, distribution centres and head office.