Capacity boost for Cravendale

Cravendale is one of the UKs fastest growing grocery brands and, with sales up 16 per cent year-on-year, Arla is preparing to increase volumes of the countrys number one milk brand at its flagship dairy in Stourton, Leeds.

In a 6.7 million joint venture with blowmoulding specialist Logoplaste, Arla is extending its onsite blowmoulding facility at Stourton dairy to accommodate a new, dedicated Cravendale bottle blowmoulding machine to complement two existing ones. It will also significantly increase storage capacity for blown bottles. The result of the project will be a boost in Cravendale production of 50 million litres through the Stourton site, by allowing processing capacity to be utilised.

The extension to the facility is on track for completion in December and the new blowmoulder will be operational in March, marking another important chapter for Cravendale. Sam Dolan, Cravendale brand manager, comments: Cravendale has doubled in value in the last four years. Since its launch 12 years ago we have recently topped the 200 million litre milestone and expect value sales to exceed 166 million by the end of the year.

The expansion of the blowmoulding facility at Stourton and subsequent increase in production capacity supports our ambitious growth targets for Cravendale, where we plan to be a top 10 grocery brand by 2020.

Arla Foods UK plc is home to some of the UKs leading dairy brands including Cravendale, Lurpak and Anchor. Processing approximately two billion litres of milk a year Arla continues to be one of the UKs leading dairy companies and a supplier of fresh liquid milk and cream to the top seven retailers.