Dairy Crest Share Price (DCG)

Dairy Crest buys specialist milk business Proper Welsh MilkDairy Crest is today announcing that it has bought the small specialist milk business Proper Welsh Milk. The business and assets have been acquired from the administrators BDO LLP for £325,000. Proper Welsh Milk was created in 2011 and invested over £1 million in a new dairy on the site of the former Whitland Creamery in Carmarthenshire. It now employs around 40 people and packs local milk for Tesco, Marks and Spencer and a number of other customers. It has recently started supplying milk enriched with vitamin D which contributes to strong bones. Proper Welsh has been hit by cash flow problems and went into administration on 1 March 2013. Dairy Crest is committed to supporting dairy farming in Wales and is one of the country's biggest milk buyers. However until now all of its Welsh milk has been packed in England. Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Allen, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, said: "We are delighted to be the new owners of this business which we believe has a bright future. Our priority is to maintain supply to customers and use this modern dairy in a strong milk field to help us to develop new products, such as vitamin enriched milk. We welcome the employees of Proper Welsh Milk to Dairy Crest and look forward to working with them." Simon Girling, Joint Administrator of BDO LLP added "We are pleased that this important facility in the local community has been preserved, and can now enter a new era with confidence, with the support of an industry major."

Board changes Alastair Murray, the group's Finance Director of nearly 10 years, has announced his intention to leave the firm to pursue other business interests. He will step down in May. Murray will be succeeded by Tom Atherton, previously Dairy Crest's Director of Financial Control for the past four years. "The reorganisation announced today continues the decisive changes made by the Dairy Crest management team over recent years to optimise the company's position in a competitive sector," said Chairman Anthony Fry. "Alastair has been a Finance Director of the highest quality with an excellent reputation both within the business and outside. I have been fortunate as Chairman to have had someone who has contributed so much to the company, for which he has my personal thanks as well as that of all my board colleagues. He leaves Dairy Crest with our very best wishes for his future." The company also announced that the Managing Director of its Diaries division, Toby Brinsmead, is to leave at the end of next month. In a separate statement, the firm announced that it has managed to keep hold of its contract to supply milk to supermarket giant Sainsbury's for another three years.

Dairy Crest announced a 'reorganisation' of the company on Tuesday morning, which includes targeted cost savings and a number of senior management changes. The dairy foods group said that after a series of of disposals over the past few years, it now has the opportunity to "simplify the business further". As such, it will consolidate its organisation into a single structure "focused on consumer-driven growth with an integrated supply chain". "The new organisation, focused on consumers and customers, will facilitate best practice, eliminate duplication and maintain Dairy Crest's strong focus on profit delivery.� Annual cost savings of at least �5.0m are anticipated." After the reorganisation, Diary Crest will continue to report its results for Cheese, Spreads and Dairies separately.

FTSE 250 dairy foods company Dairy Crest has managed to keep hold of its contract to supply milk to supermarket giant Sainsbury's for another three years, the company announced on Tuesday morning. After a competitive process, the company said that it retained the contract from February 2014 until 2017. Dairy Crest said that although the conditions of the contract will change, any financial impact will be offset by its ongoing cost reductions. The company said earlier this month that it was on track to exceed its annual cost savings target by delivering £23m for the year ending March 31st. "We are delighted to have retained our Sainsbury's business," said Chief Executive Mark Allen. "Our track record of making efficiencies allows us to supply our customers with competitively priced milk, pay our farmers a fair price and move towards our medium-term target of 3.0% return on sales in our Dairies business."

Retains the Sainsburys milk contract and announced that there will be a re-org to simplify the business and ultimately remove cost. Any views?

http://www.investegate.co.uk/dairy-crest-group-(dcg)/rns/contract-to-supply-milk-to-sainsburys/201302190700141501Y/