Arla Foods reaches final of national Food Manufacturing awards

Arla Foods has been named among the UK’s best food and drink manufacturers after reaching the final of the industry’s national awards that recognise manufacturing success.

Arla, one of the UK’s leading dairy companies, was named as a finalist in the Dairy Manufacturing Company of the Year category at the prestigious Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards 2011.

Arla was congratulated on achieving the very highest standards in food and drink manufacturing during a gala awards evening hosted by comedian Hugh Dennis.

The judges were particularly impressed with the environmental work carried out over the past year, which included on-farm carbon reduction workshops, the launch of 'kids closer to nature', which encourages children to interact more with the great outdoors, and also the launch of Arla's environment strategy 2020, which outlines reduction targets for CO2, water and waste. The judges also praised the company's ambition to be the world’s most natural dairy company.

Ash Amirahmadi, Arla Foods head of milk buying, said: “It’s fantastic for Arla to be recognised as one of the UK’s best food and drink manufacturing companies and we hope to build on this success even further in the future.”

The annual Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards, run by Food Manufacture magazine, are the premier event in the UK food manufacturing calendar.

Rick Pendrous, Editor of Food Manufacture, said: “The Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards recognise and reward the UK’s very best food and drink manufacturing companies, of which Arla Foods is clearly one. We congratulate them on achieving the very highest standards in a very challenging market.”

Arla Foods UK plc is home to some of the UK’s leading dairy brands including Cravendale, Lurpak and Anchor. Processing approximately two billion litres of milk a year Arla continues to be one of the UK’s leading dairy companies and a supplier of fresh liquid milk and cream to the top seven retailers.

Over 2,500 daily deliveries are made directly to stores nationwide and Arla brands can be found across the dairy category. As well as the leader of the butter, spreads and margarine sector, and a major supplier of other added value products including flavoured milk and cheese, Arla continues to build working relationships with Arla Foods Milk Partnership, a unique group of dairy farmers, which supplies around 90 per cent of Arla's total milk requirements.

Behind this leading business is a team of circa 2,800 people across the UK located at our dairies, distribution centres and head office.