FDBusiness.com

Dairy Crest’s proposed £80 million sale of its dairies operations to Müller UK & Ireland Group has been referred back to the UK for review by the Competition and Markets Authority by the European Commission. The business being sold comprises the fresh liquid milk, flavoured milk including the FRijj brand, bulk and potted cream, bulk butter and milk powder businesses of Dairy Crest. It includes Dairy Crest’s dairy facilities at Severnside, Chadwell Heath, Foston and Hanworth together with around 70 depots.

In the year ended 31 March 2014 Dairy Crest’s dairies operations recorded revenue of £944.8 million and product group profits of £0.6 million excluding profits from selling surplus properties which were £18.2 million. At 31 March 2014 the total assets employed in the Dairy Crest’s Dairies operations which are being sold were £253.5 million and the net assets employed were £112.8 million.

Müller UK & Ireland Group is wholly owned by Germany-based Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller. It operates nine dairies and 10 depots in the UK and employs almost 6,000 people across four business units – Müller Dairy, Müller Wiseman Dairies, Müller Minsterley and TM Telford.

Mark Allen, chief executive of Dairy Crest, comments: “This transaction will be a positive development for both Dairy Crest and the UK dairy industry as a whole, delivering economies of scale that will help to create a more sustainable UK dairy sector that is better placed to compete on the global stage. It has always been our preference for the transaction to be reviewed in the UK, so we welcome this referral back to the CMA as a positive step. We will work with Müller and the CMA to progress the merger review as quickly as possible.”