EC approves acquisition of British milk drinks business Crediton Dairy

The management buy-out team led by former Milk Link executives Neil Kennedy and Tim Smiddy has completed its acquisition of leading British milk drinks business Crediton Dairy from Arla Foods, after the European Commission gave its approval for the deal.

The new business, called Crediton Dairy Ltd, will supply long-life milk, long-life cream, functional and flavoured dairy drinks and fresh bulk cream.

The modern dairy has a current annual production capacity of about 200 million litres and supplies all the major UK retailers and many leading foodservice businesses with both customer-label and branded items. Its products includes: Moo, the UK's leading brand of long-life milk; functional branded milks such as Flora pro activ; flavoured milk brands such as Mars Family Refuel chocolate milk, made under a licence from Mars; and the Dairy Pride long-life milk and cream foodservice brand.

Tim Smiddy, managing director of Crediton Dairy Ltd, said: "Having completed the acquisition we can now progress our plans for the development of the business. We believe that Crediton has strong growth potential based upon its self-contained, well-invested manufacturing facility, its growing customer base, its established range of products and brands and its skilled and committed workforce.

"We will continue to focus on making great-tasting, high-quality products with demonstrable British provenance and traceability and complement this with customer service excellence and targeted new product development."