Arla keeps City guessing over location of super-dairy

By Elaine Watson

- Last updated on GMT

Arla cottage cheese production, Stourton
Arla cottage cheese production, Stourton
Arla’s 1bn-litre ‘super dairy’ will not – as suggested in press reports this week – be constructed ‘near the western fringe of the M25 between Slough and Uxbridge’, bosses have insisted.

Speaking to FoodManufacture.co.uk as Arla began commercial production of cottage cheese at its £70m Stourton dairy, a spokeswoman said rumours circulating in the trade and the City about a Slough/Uxbridge location were not true.

She would not disclose the correct location of the £150m dairy​ or whether planning permission had been granted, but said it remained on course to become operational in 2012,​ with an announcement about its initial capacity and precise location "on the outskirts of London"​ to follow shortly.

Cottage cheese

By supplying 7,000t of own-label cottage cheese to Tesco and Asda, Arla will gain a 50% share of the UK cottage cheese market overnight, with further gains likely as it increases production to 10,000t by 2012.

Its entry into the market has dented the fortunes​ of chilled food firm Uniq, which warned it would experience "a significant reduction of cottage cheese business in the second half”.
 
A strategic review of its cottage cheese production facility at Evercreech will be completed in the autumn.

Arla is using a single drum of cottage cheese curds before filling separate product blenders where different flavours or dressings are added.

Its new products – which are now on sale at Tesco and due to hit shelves at Asda in September – include 150g ‘taster’ pots containing red pepper pesto and pineapple and passion fruit with cottage cheese.
 

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