Dairy Crest Issue Interim Management Statement
Dairy Crest say that sales in the quarter ended June 30th have improved from that reported in the equivalent three months last year. It traded in line with expectations and the anticipated trends set out in Dairy Crest's Preliminary Results released on 19 May 2009, it said.
Sales of key brands, Clover, Country Life Spreadable, Cathedral City and St Hubert Omega 3 were up in total by 14% in volume and 8% in value terms, they say.
Sales in the Dairies division were down 3% compared to those for the quarter ended 30 June 2008, they added.
They also welcomed 114 dairy farmers to Dairy Crest who were previously supplying around 100 million litres of milk annually to the recently failed co-op DFOB.
Dairy Crest Shares Jump
Shares in Dairy Crest Group Plc jumped 15% Friday following news of the sale of the company's 49% stake in Yoplait Dairy Crest Ltd., to its joint venture partner, the Yoplait group, for GBP 63.5 million.
The disposal will result in an exceptional profit of GBP 50 million, with no tax expected to be payable on the divestiture. The cash proceeds will be used to repay debt and significantly improve headroom against banking covenants, the company said.
Also providing a pre-close trading update for the year ending March 31, 2009, Dairy Crest reported that its trading performance for fiscal 2009 remains in line with expectations.
Johnny Rotten Boosts Dairy Crest Sales
Bizarre as it might sound, linking ex Sex Pistols front man with Country Life butter seems to be paying off for Dairy Crest. And presumably for Mr Lydon himself, where's your principles now Johnny Boy?
Volumes of spreadable Country Life are up 85 percent in the latest quarter say Dairy Crest, adding that trading had steadied since a November profit warning, with sales rising 4 percent in the nine months ended Dec. 31.
Lydon is desperate to cash in on his rediscovered C list celebrity status, by releasing a remixed version of some famous Sex Pistols hits including: EatSomeBrie in the UK and God Save The Queso.
Dairy Crest To Cut Its Milk Price In February
Dairy Crest has announced that it will cut the price it pays its suppliers for milk from next month.
Customers on its standard liquid contract will see a 1.75p/litre reduction, while those on the Davidstow contract will have their price cut by 1p/litre.
The announcement follows similar cuts made by Arla and First Milk earlier this month.
As with those two milk buyers, Dairy Crest blamed the cuts on falling dairy commodity markets and difficult trading conditions in the current economic climate.
Dairy Crest Parts Company With MD
The executive managing director of Dairy Crest’s Dairies division has stood down from the board. Martin Oakes is leaving Dairy Crest after almost two years with the company. His position on the board will not be replaced.
Oakes, who joined Dairy Crest from Somerfield in February 2007, has stepped down from the board of directors with immediate effect but will leave the company on 31 January.
In November the company’s shares soured after it issued a profits warning, due, partly, to weaker returns from dairy ingredients. Operating profit in its dairies division had fallen to £2.7m in the six months to 30 September from £13.5m the year before because of higher input costs.
The company responded by announcing it's determination to drive costs out of both distribution and manufacturing in the Dairies division.
Somerset Co-op Offers To Take On All Dairy Crest's Organic Suppliers
Following Dairy Crest's recently announced 4p/litre cut in the price it pays it's farm suppliers for organic milk, Somerset-based OMSCo, (Organic Milk Suppliers' Co-operative) has offered to take over all of Dairy Crest's 78 organic suppliers, who between them pump 90 million litres a year into the market, according to reports.
The co-op's 400 farmer members produce 300 million litres of milk a year and it is the main supplier to Yeo Valley, the country's largest organic yogurt maker.
The deal, put to the Dairy Crest farmers last week, is an all or nothing one – all the suppliers have to agree or it will not go ahead. But there were indications at the meeting that three quarters of the farmers were ready to make the move, with the rest wanting to see the small print first.
The proposed deal would give OMSCo control of about 90 per cent of the domestic organic milk market.
Dairy Crest, Britain's largest milk processor, blamed it's cut on falling demand for organic milk because of the squeeze on consumer spending.
The company is reputedly 20 million litres over-supplied – about £4.2m in a year – and has nowhere to sell it.
But embittered organic farmers say the processor has been victim of its own mismanagement – Dairy Crest has continued to recruit organic suppliers without, apparently, having a guaranteed outlet for what they would be producing.
Dairy Crest Proposing To Send Organic Cows On Holiday
As UK consumers drift away from organic produce as the credit crunch bites, Dairy Crest has sent a letter to it's organic milk producers saying that the compnay has no option than to cut the price it pays producers by 3.7ppl.
Dairy Crest's milk purchasing director Arthur Reeves said the firm was negotiating with organic certification bodies and DEFRA to allow producers an organic "holiday" to feed cows conventionally until the oversupply situation was corrected!
Have you ever heard anything of the like?
Dairy Crest Shares Plunge
Dairy Crest today announces its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 September 2008.
Markets became more difficult towards the end of the first half as general economic conditions worsened. We have experienced upward pressure on input costs, notably raw milk, and lower realisations from ingredients markets, the company said in a statement.
Pretax profit will fall by about 10 percent in the current fiscal year, excluding exceptional items and amortization, the Esher-based company said. Dairy Crest also reported a 77 percent drop in first-half net income.
Net income dropped to 6.3 million pounds, or 4.7 pence a share, in the six months through September from 26.9 million pounds, or 20.2 pence, a year earlier, the company said.
Dairy Crest says it has cut 100 jobs from its head office and distribution operations, in an effort to reduce costs. The company is also proceeding with plans to close a Nottingham bottling plant with the loss of a further 215 jobs.
The city clearly didn't like the figures. Shares plunged 26% to 244p shortly after they were released.
Scottish rival Robert Wiseman warned on Friday that lower cream prices could hit its second-half results.
Dairy Crest To Close Dairy, Reduce Staffing
Dairy Crest says it hopes to make "significant savings" by closing its Nottingham dairy in an attempt to fight soaring costs.
The site employs 215 people and was bought by Dairy Crest from Express Dairies only two years ago. There will also be job losses at the company's head office it says.
In a trading statement this morning, Dairy Crest said it was making the move to cut costs in its dairies division by opening a new regional distribution centre in the West Midlands.
First half profits are likely to be down as the company battles against soaring input costs such as higher milk prices, packaging and energy.
At 11am BST Tuesday shares in Dairy Crest were almost 5% lower at 388.75p.
Dairy Crest moves half a penny from June
Farmers Guardian--DAIRY Crest producers on standard liquid contracts, including those supplying Sainsbury, will get an additional 0.5ppl from June 1.
Those on the organic contract will receive an additional 1ppl. The increases follow on the heels of the higher milk-for-cheese prices announced last month.
Milk purchasing director Arthur Reeves said: “We are again having to ask all our customers to pay more. To continually increase prices, as we have been doing for over a year now, is a real challenge.
"However, our broadly–based business helps us meet that challenge.”
He said the company was continuing to drive efficiencies to minimise the effect of upward price pressures on consumers.
DCD chairman David Herdman considered the latest increase to be: “A fair result, taking into account the cost pressures we are both facing. But there is still a need for further increases as we move through the year.”
