Committed to excellence

Arla Foods' Leeds Dairy received a "Committed to Excellence" award at the recently held Excellence Yorkshire Awards, which recognise and reward best business practise, at the Leeds Marriott Hotel.

"To qualify for the standard the dairy had to measure all aspects of its performance against the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model. The committed to excellence standard is recognition of all the improvements that the dairy has made since applying the model," explained Alison Richardson, operations co-ordinator.

In October 2003, Pauline Verner, an assessor from Excellence Yorkshire visited the dairy to see what they'd done, how they measured their progress and the areas where most improvement had been made.

"Pauline was very impressed with the improvements we'd made as a result of us applying the model. She even said that our efforts to satisfy the society section of the model would have allowed us to qualify for a full award specific to that area," said Alison.

The society improvements Leeds Dairy implemented included putting environmental policies and procedures in place, as well as developing a number of recycling initiatives. Local students from sixth form colleges were also invited to the dairy to study manufacturing awareness.

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.