FDBusiness.com

UK dairy group Dairy Crest has strengthened its spreads business with the £13m acquisition of MH Foods, which manufactures healthy ‘one calorie’ spray cooking oils and salad dressings. “It has a good history of innovation over many years, the leading brand in its sector and fits well with our Spreads business and we believe the acquisition will allow us to build on our strong portfolio of lighter brands,” says Mark Allen, chief executive of Dairy Crest.

Meanwhile, Dairy Crest has opened its environmentally friendly biomass boilers at its Davidstow creamery. The boilers constitute one of the largest sustainable wood pellet burning installations in the country and are of national importance in achieving carbon reduction. The biomass project will deliver a 12% reduction in Dairy Crest’s carbon emissions, a major step towards its ambitious commitment to the Carbon Trust to achieve 28% carbon reduction by 2020.

Dairy Crest’s overall trading in the first quarter of its current financial year has been in line with expectations. Total sales of its five key brands (Cathedral City, Country Life, Clover, St Hubert Omega 3 and Frijj) have increased by 5 % compared to the same period last year.

Dairy Crest also has a strong innovation pipeline, with several interesting new products due to be launched later this year. In the UK these include Chedds, a new children’s cheese snacks, and new premium flavours for its Frijj branded milk shake. In France, Dairy Crest will launch a new St Hubert non-dairy cream and a spread that contains edible seeds.