FDBusiness.com

Solid performances from cheese and spread brands Cathedral City and Country Life helped Dairy Crest report a 2% uplift in volume sales.

Dairy Crest said its cooking oil spray Frylight and Clover, another spread, had also performed well in the nine months to end of December 2015 amid a challenging market across cheeses and spreads.
The company also flagged up that its new spread brand, Clover Simple, which has no artificial ingredients, as a solid performer which had seen year-on-year volume sales growth since its launch in September 2015.

It said that Country Life sales has been aided from promotional activity which highlighted its British provenance.

Dairy Crest is banking on strong growth in the infant formula market for future growth.
It has begun production of demineralised whey powder and galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS), which are both ingredients in the infant formula market, which Dairy Crest said it will give it access to new markets and customers.

In 2015, Dairy Crest acquired the 50 per cent share it didn’t own of Promovita Ingredients Limited, which makes GOS.

Mark Allen, Dairy Crest chief executive, said: “Dairy Crest is now a branded and added-value business well placed to achieve profitable and sustainable growth.

“The strength of our brands is demonstrated by their performance in a challenging, deflationary consumer environment.

“We are also entering an exciting new chapter for Dairy Crest. Our functional ingredients business will be a key part of Dairy Crest in the future, giving us access to new growth markets “The outlook for the full year remains in line with our expectations.”

Dairy Crest Group plc is a leading British dairy products company. Its brands include Cathedral City Cheddar cheese, Country Life butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Clover. The firm employs over 4,500 people.