Arla grows revenue to £2.25bn and boosts sales

Arla grew volumes sold by approximately 200Mkg and delivered its highest rate of branded sales ever, for the weeks to December 31 2015.

The dairy co-operative experienced record UK sales in its butter and spreads division – consisting of the Lurpak and Anchor brands – rising by 4.6%.

It also experienced double digit growth with its Arla Lactofree product range, with sales up 23% compared with the previous year.

Invest in branded growth ​

The success meant Arla would now continue to invest in branded growth, increase marketing spend and its presence in the yogurt category in 2016, its executive vice president Peter Giørtz-Carlsen claimed.

“A relentless focus on supporting our farmer owners, product innovation and continually delivering efficiencies and cost savings will ensure that we stay ahead of the game,”​ he claimed.

“​To further underpin our position as industry leader, and take advantage of the increasing supply of milk available, we will soon be making an announcement in the UK as part of the business’s Good Growth 2020 strategy, with the aim of supporting the growth of dairy categories in the UK as well as ​the development of Arla into a top 10 consumer grocery brand.”​

Outperformed expectations ​

Arla branded products have outperformed expectations by achieving volume driven growth of 5.2%, the firm claimed.

This included Arla Big Milk, Arla skyr and Arla Protein – the latter two marking the business’s entry into the UK yogurt category. It also recently launched Arla BOB – a fat-free milk that tastes like semi-skimmed.

Despite the strong performance, Arla reiterated the UK business wasn’t immune to the challenges facing the broader business including the increasing supply of milk.

While Arla delivered a strong cost control programme and increased its competitiveness in 2015, improved efficiencies will continue throughout 2016 to maintain a strong performance in a challenging market.