Dairy Crest doing well

Dairy Crest has announced strong results for the first quarter of the year.

Performance in its dairies division in the three months to 30 June improved from that reported in the equivalent three months last year.
The UK company has also announced changes to its board with Anthony Fry taking the role of deputy chairman.
He will then take over from Simon Oliver as chairman on 1 January 2010. Oliver is retiring from the board and will take on the position of honorary group president.
Andrew Carr-Locke will be appointed to the board as non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee.
The company’s focus remains on the development of its brands and on improving its cash position. It is also continuing to seek ways to reduce risk and focus the business on its core added value areas.
Sales in Dairy Crest’s foods division for the quarter ending 30 June 2009 were in line with those for the quarter ended 30 June 2008, excluding share of joint ventures.
Sales of key brands Clover, Country Life Spreadable, Cathedral City and St Hubert Omega 3 were up in total by 14% in volume and 8% in value terms.
In the dairies division, the company planned to reduce the amount of milk processed because of poor returns from dairy ingredients markets. As a result, sales in the division for the quarter ended 30 June 2009 were down 3% compared to those for the same quarter last year.
Milk volumes to key retail customers were up 4%, but have been offset by lower ingredients and middle ground volumes and prices. The raw milk purchase prices that Dairy Crest pay to direct suppliers on liquid contracts have fallen by 0.75ppl during the quarter to offset these lower returns.
The company’s milk shake brand FRijj has grown in volume and value by 22% in the quarter.
Dairy Crest has also picked up more than a 100 dairy farmers from Dairy Farmers of Britain which went into receivership in June.