​Arla launches strategy to champion British dairy

Arla Foods, the country’s largest dairy company, has unveiled its most ambitious business strategy to date to make Arla a household brand by 2020 and grow its revenue by nearly a third¹.

Spearheaded by new country head, Tomas Pietrangeli, who joined the UK business earlier this year, the ambition is part of the company’s global strategy for growth and will position Arla as the champion of British dairy.

Arla’s new strategy will include much greater investment in its Arla and Lurpak brands with the aim of creating them into top ten FMCG brands by 2020². It also plans to grow Castello³ to become the best known premium cheddar and speciality cheese brand.

Following the launch of the Arla brand to UK consumers last year, the company has already launched a wide range of innovative and healthier dairy products including Arla Best of Both skimmed milk, Arla skyr and Arla Protein into categories including drinks, yogurts and cottage cheese.

The company will build on these early successes with an up-weighted programme of activity to further raise awareness of its farmer-owned status to drive differentiation and become synonymous with dairy health in both its branded and own label portfolios.

Arla has made a number of further commitments as part of its 2020 strategy:

• At least 10 per cent of its net revenue will come from new product development across its branded portfolio;
• Invest a minimum of 25 per cent of its marketing spend in digital;
• Increase the availability of dairy products for breakfast, snacking on the go, convenience and hospitality with an overall ambition to increase dairy consumption;
• Extend its pipeline of healthier dairy products with at least 30 new dairy concepts and 50 new range extensions; and
• Invest over £100 million in promoting a series of new healthier dairy products and campaigns to encourage more nutritious eating habits and challenge some of the current myths about dairy.

Tomas Pietrangeli, Arla Foods UK, managing director, said: “We want Arla to be the name that people know, love and trust for dairy. We have developed a strategy that delivers clear consumer benefits by re-engaging them in the most innovative, unexpected, responsible and efficient way.

“Our overall objective will be to add value to our milk and in turn allow us to return the best possible price to our farmer owners” he continues.

The company will also publish a set of major health and nutrition commitments on Arla products and the development of an enhanced foodservice offering, to become a supplier of choice outside the retail environment.

Visit the Strategy 2020 section on Arlafoods.co.uk to watch Tomas Pietrangeli discuss the new strategy and also a gifographic telling the story http://goo.gl/0xqFBV.

1 Arla Foods UK revenue in 2015 stood at £2.0bn (excludes commodity trading) and aims to grow to £2.6bn by 2020.

²Arla brand to be a £400m brand (RSV)

³ Castello a £40m brand by 2020 (RSV).  

Arla Foods is a global dairy company and co-operative owned by 12,700 dairy farmers with circa 2,700 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 fifth 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.

Arla Foods UK is the largest dairy company in the country and is home to leading dairy brands Anchor®, Cravendale, and Lactofree® with a turnover of €2.9 billion. As well as being a leading supplier of fresh milk, number one in 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.