 | |
| Formerly | Dairy Crest plc |
|---|---|
| Company type | Limited Company |
| Industry | Dairy Products |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | Weybridge,Surrey,United Kingdom |
Key people | Steve Douglas (COO) |
| Products | Cathedral City (cheese) Clover Petits Filous |
| Revenue | £456.8 million (2018)[1] |
| £71.4 million (2018)[1][needs update] | |
| £149.5 million (2018)[1][needs update] | |
| Owner | Saputo Inc. |
Number of employees | 1,097 (2018)[1][needs update] |
| Website | uk |
Saputo Dairy UK, the trading name of Dairy Crest Limited, is a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian companySaputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of theMilk Marketing Board.[2][3] Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK,Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly,Vitalite,Wensleydale andClover.
Dairy Crest processed and sold milk (wholesale and via doorstep deliveries) and owned the milkshake brandFrijj until the sale of that part of the business to Germany'sMüller in 2015. The company was listed on theLondon Stock Exchange as Dairy Crest plc, until it was acquired bySaputo in 2019.[4] Saputo rebranded the company under its own name later that year.
Dairy Crest was established in 1981 as the milk processing arm of theMilk Marketing Board.[5] In 1983, the company launched Clover, a dairy spread.[5] The company established a joint venture withFrench dairy companyYoplait in 1981, called Yoplait Dairy Crest (sometimes abbreviated to YDC). YDC is 51% owned by Yoplait and 49% by Dairy Crest, and distributes Yoplait brand products in the UK.[5]
In 1995, Dairy Crest bought the Cathedral City brand ofcheese from Mendip Foods Ltd.[5] The business wasprivatised the following year and Dairy Crest was listed on theLondon Stock Exchange.[5]
In 2000, Dairy Crest acquired the dairy and cheese products division ofUnigate inLondon,[5] and in 2002 bought theSt Ivel spreads company, which had been based inWootton Bassett inWiltshire.[5] In 2004, it acquired the Country Life butter brand from the English Butter Marketing Company,[5] andExpress Dairies fromArla Foods in 2006 for £33 million.[6]
The company sold the majority of its own-label cheese business to its Scottish equivalentFirst Milk in 2006, along with the creameries and factory that produce most of the products concerned.[7] In 2007, Dairy Crest bought St Hubert for £248 million, securing the Cholegram, Le Fleurier, Omega 3 and Vallé brands, which were subsequently sold in 2012 toMontagu Private Equity for €430 million (£347 million).[8]
Plans for theCrudgington Creamery to close were announced in 2012.[9] The Creamery closed in May 2014, when production of spreads was concentrated at Kirkby while the research and development facility was transferred to an innovation centre built by the company atHarper Adams University.[10]
Dairy Crest sold its doorstep milk delivery operations in theNorth West of England in July 2013 toCreamline Dairies who now operate the milk rounds from the depots inWarrington,Flixton,Stockport andMacclesfield and Mortons operate all those inWirral,Chester andLiverpool.[11] Dairy Crest announced a big slump in profits on 6 November 2014 which was down 95% to £900,000 in the six months to September.[12]
The company agreed the sale of its entire legacy milk business, which processes and distributes milk, as well as theFrijj milkshake brand, to Germany'sMüller for £80 million, enabling it to be combined with Müller's existing subsidiary,Müller Wiseman Dairies. The sale was approved by theCompetition and Markets Authority on 19 October 2015,[13] and completed the following December.[14]
It was announced in 2019 that Canadian dairy companySaputo Inc would be buying Dairy Crest.[15]
The company was valued at £975 million, making each share worth 620p.[16] The transaction was completed on 15 April 2019.[17] At the time of the sale, Dairy Crest was the fourth largest dairy company in the UK based on turnover.[18] Saputo renamed the business under its own brand in July 2019, though Dairy Crest Limited remained the principal legal entity.[19][2]
In 2021, Saputo purchased Bute Island Foods, the manufacturer of Sheese vegan cheese.[20]
The company suppliescheese, spreads and drinks. Cheese brands includeCathedral City,Davidstow Cheddar and Wexford.[21] Spread brands includeClover, Country Life, Utterly Butterly,Vitalite and Willow.[21] Spread and Frylight cooking spray production is consolidated atKirkby.[22]Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall has been run by the company since 1981.
AtTruro Crown Court in December 2021, Dairy Crest admitted charges relating to a series of incidents of serious pollution between December 2015 and January 2021, including the illegal discharge of "biological sludge" and "suspended solids" from its creamery atDavidstow into theRiver Inny, Cornwall.[23] Fines of £1.52 million and costs of £272,747 were imposed on the company in June 2022.[24] It was reported that there was a possibility that the royal warrant could be removed as a result of the pollution.[25]
In 2025 the company said it was making the switch from producing demineralised whey and galacto-oligosaccharides, which it began producing in 2013 in order to return to the production of sweet whey powder.[26]
The Environment Agency cited the Davidstow site as a persistently poorly performing site in the 2024-25 Chief Regulator’s report.[27] The Environment Agency has initiated a consultation process for a new permit aimed at the Davidstow creamery. This new permit aims to introduce environmental improvements and allow an increase in cheese production.[28]
The company has also polluted other rivers in the UK. Pollution in 2023 and 2025 in a tributary of the River Ure was caused by a faulty drainage system at its Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes.[29]
Saputo's other international subsidiaries have also been prosecuted for pollution. An accident at a facility in Tulare, California on June 22, 2018, led to the release of 5,690 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. Owned by Saputo Cheese USA Inc. the facility produced mozzarella cheese and whey protein concentrate.[30] In total, Saputo subsidiaries in the USA have been fined on at least nine separate occasions by government agencies for environmental breaches since 2001.[31]
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