| Type | Co-operative (Private Limited with share capital 04427868) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Dairy |
| Predecessor | Milk Marque (indirectly) |
| Founded | April 30, 2000 |
| Defunct | 2012 |
| Fate | merger with Arla Foods |
| Headquarters | 3120 Great Western Court, Hunts Ground Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 8HP |
Area served | UK |
Key people | Neil Kennedy Chief Executive |
| Products | Milk, cheese |
| Revenue | £586 million (2010/11) |
| £15.1 million [1] | |
| Owner | British Farmers Community |
| Divisions | Milk Link, Cheese Milk Link, Milk |
| Website | www |
Milk Link was a large dairy company in the United Kingdom. It was the UK's largest dairy cooperative and the UK's largest producer of cheese. In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.
It was formed in April 2000 as one of three successor co-operatives to Milk Marque. Milk Marque was broken up after the Competition Commission queried how it set milk prices.
In July 2002, the company bought the Crediton and Kirkcudbright creameries from Express Dairies for £33.1 million, both of which make UHT milk. It also bought out the 50% of joint-venture partner Express Dairies in the creamery at Frome. The Crediton operations were later sold in a management buyout.
In February 2004 it set up The Cheese Company with Kilkenny-based Glanbia, which had four cheese production sites and a packing facility supplying major retailers in the UK, in which it took a 75% stake. In December 2006 it bought out Glanbia for £47.2 million.
In July 2005 it closed a site at Sible Hedingham. [2]
From October 2007 [3] to February 2008 [4] there were talks to merge with First Milk.
In August 2011 it split into two divisions named 'Milk Link, Cheese' and 'Milk Link, Milk'. [5]
In September 2011 it announced that it would increase the size of the Lockerbie creamery by 50% to produce 37,000 tonnes of cheese a year, into a UK market which consumes 600,000 tonnes of cheese a year.
In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.
Each year it handles around 1.5 billion litres of milk.
It makes the chocolate-flavoured milk under licence for the Mars and Galaxy brand.
It exports cheese to 19 countries.
Cheddar cheese is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting. Cheddar originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative headquartered in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. The association manufactures and sells dairy products under the "Tillamook" brand name. Its main facility is the Tillamook Creamery, located two miles north of the city of Tillamook on U.S. Route 101.
Arla Foods is a Danish-Swedish multinational cooperative based in Viby, Denmark, and the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia, and the largest dairy in the United Kingdom.
Glanbia plc is an Irish global nutrition group with operations in 32 countries. It has leading market positions in sports nutrition, cheese, dairy ingredients, speciality non-dairy ingredients and vitamin and mineral premixes. Glanbia products are sold or distributed in over 130 countries. While Europe and the USA represent the biggest markets, the Group are continuing to expand into the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Glanbia's primary listing is on Euronext Dublin. The Group has four segments; Glanbia Nutritionals, Performance Nutrition, Glanbia Ireland and Joint Ventures & Associates, with a combined workforce of over 7,000 employees in 32 countries.
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about 7 miles (11 km) north west of Exeter and around 14 miles (23 km) from the M5 motorway. It has a population of 8,304. However, the combined population of the parishes that make up the Crediton area is estimated to be 21,990.
Dairy Crest Limited trading as Saputo Dairy UK, is a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the Milk Marketing Board. Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK, Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Clover.
Dunlop is a mild cheese or 'sweet-milk cheese' from Dunlop, East Ayrshire, Scotland. It resembles a soft Cheddar cheese in texture. Though it fell out of popularity some time after the end of the Second World War, it is now appreciated for its value in various recipes and for eating on its own or with a dram of whisky.
Arla Foods Ltd is a major dairy products company in the United Kingdom, based in Leeds, and a subsidiary of the Arla Foods Group, which is owned by its farmer owners in seven countries including the UK.
Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.
United Dairies is a former United Kingdom-based creamery, milk bottling and distribution company. The company was formed in 1915 and merged to form Unigate in 1959.
Fivemiletown Creamery is based in Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and is a producer of handmade speciality soft cheeses and cheddars The company is a farmers' co-operative, and employs around 40 people. The creamery draws its milk supplies mostly from over 60 dairy farmers from across Northern Ireland. The company was founded in 1898 and added cheese production in 1972. Fivemiletown Creamery is the only speciality cheese maker in Northern Ireland. In 2014 Fivemiletown Creamery was acquired by Dale Farm.
Wensleydale Creamery is a cheese manufacturer based in the town of Hawes in North Yorkshire, England. It makes several varieties of cheese, but is most notable as a producer of Yorkshire Wensleydale; a variety of Wensleydale cheese with PGI status.
Davidstow Cheddar is a brand of Cheddar cheese manufactured by Dairy Crest, at the Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, alongside Cathedral City Cheddar.
Vegan cheese is a category of non-dairy, plant-based cheese analogues. Vegan cheeses range from soft fresh cheeses to aged and cultured hard grateable cheeses like plant-based Parmesan. The defining characteristic of vegan cheese is the exclusion of all animal products.
Tirlán is an Irish dairy co-operative. The co-operative has its roots in a series of amalgamations of small rural co-operative creamery societies throughout County Kilkenny, most notably the amalgamation of Avonmore Creameries Federation in 1966.
The dairy industry in the United Kingdom is the industry of dairy farming that takes place in the UK.
The Davidstow Creamery is a manufacturing plant in Cornwall; it makes Cathedral City mature Cheddar cheese. It is the largest cheese factory in the UK, and the largest mature cheddar plant in the world.