FDBusiness.com

Irish dairy co-operative Lakeland Dairies has acquired Taste Trends, the leading UK based maker of Coolicious branded fat-free frozen yogurts, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition complements Lakeland Dairies’ extensive dairy foodservice business where the co-operative plans to expand sales of Coolicious frozen yogurt products to international markets. Both companies also specialise in working with clients to bring new foodservice concepts and solutions to market.

Based in Surrey near London and established for over 20 years, Taste Trends is the largest maker of frozen yogurts in Europe and its Coolicious products are the leading brand of frozen yogurt in the foodservice sector, selling over 17 million portions each year.

Taste Trends specialises in a range of product offerings including Coolicious soft serve frozen yogurts, frozen yogurt smoothie base, scoop frozen yogurt for milk shakes and fruit mixes for smoothies. The company also includes soft serve ice-creams, sorbets and granita semi-frozen drinks among its Coolicious branded products range.

This acquisition gives Lakeland Dairies the opportunity to benefit from the continuing major growth in frozen yogurt sales across the globe. The co-operative exports to over 70 countries throughout the world and many of these countries will now be supplied with Coolicious frozen yogurt from well-established Lakeland shipping and distribution channels.

Indicatively, the UK frozen yogurt market had a 29% compound growth rate from 2011 – 2014 and this continues to grow. The total value of the frozen yogurt market in the United States now exceeds $1.5 billion.

Michael Hanley, chief executive of Lakeland Dairies, comments: “Lakeland Dairies is the Irish and UK dairy foodservice market leader. We look forward to developing this new opportunity further across our international foodservice business using our well defined routes to market. We will also continue to examine the potential for further acquisitions where this would complement our business, enhance market reach and add value for our milk producers.”

Lakeland Dairies collects over 800 million litres of fresh milk annually from family owned farms in Ireland, processing this into a range of value-added dairy foodservice products and food ingredients which it exports worldwide.