​Consumers asked to support ‘Farmer Christmas’ with launch of Arla’s White Wednesdays Campaign

Arla Foods UK, the UK’s largest farmer-owned dairy company, is calling on consumers nationwide in the run up to Christmas to support its new ‘White Wednesdays’ campaign. It aims to reach over 40 million people to encourage them to purchase Arla's dairy products and support its farmers.

White Wednesdays will focus on the four Wednesdays in December and include unexpected stunts, print ads, paid digital, in-store POS and PR. The first Wednesday saw the launch of a new 75 second film entitled ‘Farmer Christmas’ that coincided with a significant event in central London.

Farmer Christmas film can be viewed here http://www.arlafoods.co.uk/whitewednesdays/

Subsequent Wednesdays will see the unveiling of further events across the country where Arla will mobilise many of its 3,000 farmers and 3,500 colleagues in distributing one million Farmer Christmas cards that tell the story of being famer-owned and its benefits.

The new campaign draws on insight research conducted by YouGov¹ which underlines that the Great British public is keen to get behind farmers during this volatile period for milk prices.

It found that almost two thirds of consumers (60%) say they would pay extra for dairy products and have the money go back to farmers, while almost 70% of consumers would prefer to buy their dairy products from a company which is owned by the farmers themselves.

The campaign is the culmination of a year-long programme to encourage consumers to ‘Support our Farmers’ and to highlight the launch of its ‘Farmer-Owned’ marque on Arla branded and supermarket own-label dairy products. In November, a series of short films featuring five of its farmer owners to raise awareness of Arla’s cooperative principles were launched, viewed nearly a million times.

Ash Amirahmadi, head of milk and member services at Arla said:

“There is no doubt that dairy farmers are facing challenging times. Our research shows that being a farmer-owned organisation is important to consumers, and the more we can do to encourage people to buy products made by Arla, the more we’ll be supporting our farmer owners.”

“Using milk sourced from British farms to make a range of everyday dairy products to more exciting Christmas products such as brandy butter or stilton, dairy is the hidden ingredient at the heart of many Christmas favourites. Now is an excellent time to remind people that the profits that we make from our products are shared equally amongst our owners.”

We hope that we can look to extend the campaign into next year as we feel that is an exciting and creative way to celebrate dairy and drive awareness of how important this sector is “  

To read more about White Wednesdays and watch the film, click http://www.arlafoods.co.uk/whitewednesdays/

Further farmer videos are available at

http://www.arlafoods.co.uk/about-us/farmer-owned/arla-farmer-owned-cooperative/

http://www.arlafoods.co.uk/about-us/farmer-owned/meet-our-farmers/

About the research:

¹Research conducted by YouGov among more than 2,000 consumers

Arla Foods is a global dairy company and co-operative owned by 12,700 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 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. It has a turnover of £2.3 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.