Quality cook up as Arla goes Pro
The good and the great of the UK foodservice industry will meet today at Dinerama, a global street food market in Shoreditch, where Arla Foods will launch its new foodservice division, Arla Pro.
The launch of Arla Pro brings together well-known brands such as Lurpak®, Anchor® and Castello®, with a new Arla back of house range. Under the division, new Arla brand products to support the food service industry will be launched from January 2018 including a full range of mozzarella consisting of diced, sliced & grated.
Between now and 2020, Arla is targeting growth of over £100m from its Arla Pro operation as part of its Good Growth Strategy 2020 to be the ‘Champions of British Dairy’.
Jonathan Dixon, Vice President of Arla Pro, attributes the growth to a growing trend of businesses looking for quality and traceability in the ingredients they use.“We’re seeing businesses choose Arla because the range of brands, products and solutions combine the best of dairy with foodservice expertise and innovation.Arla’s farmer owned model also provides full traceability of our products and ensures the highest possible standards. This is increasingly important to the end consumer and can support sales growth for the businesses working with us.”
Commenting on the new Arla range, Jonathan adds, ”We have spent the last few months working with some great businesses and the Craft Guild of Chefs to test the functionality and performance our of products and the feedback has been fantastic.”
Wholesale, foodservice, hospitality and manufacturing companies will attend today’s event which will be hosted by BBC Saturday Kitchen’s Matt Tebbutt. Other industry-leading chefs including Dave Wall from the Unruly Pig in Suffolk and John Calton from the Staith House in North Shields will also be in attendance.
Arla Foods is a global dairy company and co-operative owned by 11,200 dairy farmers with circa 2,500 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®, Arla Cravendale®, and Arla Lactofree® with a turnover of €2.2 billion. The UK is largest market within the Europe Zone, contributing 35% of the zone’s turnover and also comprises 25% of the Group revenue.
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 that later this year will become the first net zero carbon site of its kind. The UK business has a team of approximately 3,500 colleagues located at its dairies, creameries, distribution centres and head office.