Arla reports full year revenues of £1.94bn in the UK
Arla Foods has reported full-year group revenues to £1.94bn in the UK – its biggest market – up from £1.79 billion in 2016.
The firm, which has its UK head office Leeds, said the growth, along with the company’s recent £72m investment in the UK business, showed Arla’s commitment to continue to further build the UK dairy industry. It also plans to invest further in its Settle and Stourton sites.
Tomas Pietrangeli, managing director at Arla Foods UK, said: “Arla was both the fastest growing FMCG brand in the UK and the only leading dairy company delivering branded growth.We also saw significant wins in both foodservice and own label offering in 2017 such as the Morrisons’ fresh milk tender win. I believe that we are in a strong position to deliver on our 2020 Good Growth strategy.
“Our commitment to our ambitious plans are certainly driving financial returns and we will be focused on this again during this year.Making innovative and inherently natural dairy products, produced responsibly and sustainably, enables us to continue to deliver in an ever-increasing consumer driven grocery market.”
Arla said the full 2017 results also signaled the strength of the company’s farmer-owned cooperative model as growth is driven while balancing the challenges facing the dairy industry such as volatility in the global milk market, a weak British pound and Brexit uncertainties.
Arla’s brands delivering the greatest revenue growth in 2017 included Lurpak growing by 9%; Anchor by 16% and the Arla brand growing by 18%.
Investment and expansion of Arla’s sales channels is also driving growth in the UK. This carried through into its foodservice division which rebranded as Arla Pro during 2017 helping drive revenue growth at 22% versus last year.
The firm last year co-branded of Arla Organic into McDonald’s, which it said contributed to a high growth rate on branded volumes.
Pietrangeli added: “General health and food quality continues to grow in importance to the British public whether eating at home or out and about. The natural simplicity of our product ingredients, their ease of use for chefs and our farmer owned status is resonating with operators, particularly with quick service restaurants, coffee shops, pizza chains and pubs.”
Arla’s 2020 Good Growth strategy also focuses on stepping-up it’s digital and ecommerce efforts to create a distinctive offer targeting younger and more digitally savvy shoppers as well as modernising the perception of dairy.
In 2017, Arla made significant investment in its digital marketing communications which saw an increase of 43% compared to the year before and achieved double digit growth in its ecommerce and etailing channels.
More than 10^ of Arla’s branded net revenue has come from products launched in the last three years.
Arla addedthat looking to 2018, its decision to increase the branded share of its portfolio will continue to provide some mitigation for Arla farmers against the volatility of global milk prices. The firm said its ambitious investment plan will enable Arla in the UK to meet growing demand for its products and its investments and will lay the foundations for future growth.
