“In the dairy industry we are not very good at all at exporting our products yet,” said Ronald Kers. "As a nation, we import £2bn of dairy products into this country, which could be made with British milk, and we export only £1bn."
Müller-Wiseman aims “to displace the imports and get into the export markets”, said Kers. He was speaking during the panel session of last month’s City Food Lecture, given by Booker chief executive Charles Wilson, at London’s Guildhall.
Opportunity
“There is a real opportunity for us, not just to export, but also to displace some of the imports that we have into the country,” said Kers. “The reason for that is that we have not invested historically in the processing sector and this is one of the things that Müller has been doing.”
Kers added: “We need to invest in our processing capabilities and capacity; we need to get more competitive on the international level. Why is there no Friesland Campina or Lactalis that is based out of the UK? Again, I think the reason is because of a lack of investment over the last 30 years.”
Müller-Wiseman had invested just over £500M over the past two and half years, he said. “So we are working on a solution.”
One of the main themes of Wilson’s presentation was the potential for manufacturers to tap into the growth in alternative channels to traditional supermarkets as grocery sales grew through outlets such as hard discounters, convenience stores and the internet.
Not where we need to be
“We are not yet in the place where we need to be or where we should be,” said Kers, responding to a question about why manufacturers were not exploiting new sales channels more. “In the past two years we have acquired three different businesses not just the Wiseman business but the desserts factory at Minsterley [sold off by Greencore following its acquisition of Uniq] – and we have built a greenfield operation to make butter. So our business is evolving very, very rapidly.
“In our channel strategy, the same revolution is ongoing. We, as a business, are certainly investing in more resources – more people – but also investing in our manufacturing capabilities in order to cater to the needs of the specific channels.”
Meanwhile, Booker boss Charles Wilson predicted supermarkets will lose their supremacy in the British retail market to discount stores, such as Aldi and Lidl, and new entrants such as Amazon.