Arla Foods UK Launches Strategy to Champion British Dairy
Arla Foods UK, Britain’s largest dairy company, has unveiled its most ambitious business strategy to date to make Arla a household brand by 2020 and grow its revenue by nearly a third. Spearheaded by new country head, Tomas Pietrangeli, who joined the UK business earlier this year, the ambition is part of the company’s global strategy for growth and will position Arla as the champion of British dairy.
Arla’s new strategy will include much greater investment in its Arla and Lurpak brands with the aim of creating them into top ten FMCG brands by 2020. It also plans to grow Castello to become the best known premium cheddar and speciality cheese brand.
Following the launch of the Arla brand to UK consumers last year, the company has already launched a wide range of innovative and healthier dairy products including Arla Best of Both skimmed milk, Arla skyr and Arla Protein into categories including drinks, yogurts and cottage cheese.
The company will build on these early successes with an up-weighted programme of activity to further raise awareness of its farmer-owned status to drive differentiation and become synonymous with dairy health in both its branded and own label portfolios.
Arla has made a number of further commitments as part of its 2020 strategy:
- At least 10 per cent of its net revenue will come from new product development across its branded portfolio;
- Invest a minimum of 25 per cent of its marketing spend in digital;
- Increase the availability of dairy products for breakfast, snacking on the go, convenience and hospitality with an overall ambition to increase dairy consumption;
- Extend its pipeline of healthier dairy products with at least 30 new dairy concepts and 50 new range extensions; and
- Invest over £100 million in promoting a series of new healthier dairy products and campaigns to encourage more nutritious eating habits and challenge some of the current myths about dairy.
Tomas Pietrangeli, managing director of Arla Foods UK, says: “We want Arla to be the name that people know, love and trust for dairy. We have developed a strategy that delivers clear consumer benefits by re-engaging them in the most innovative, unexpected, responsible and efficient way. Our overall objective will be to add value to our milk and in turn allow us to return the best possible price to our farmer owners.”
The company will also publish a set of major health and nutrition commitments on Arla products and the development of an enhanced food service offering, to become a supplier of choice outside the retail environment.
