German dairy giant Müller said it plans to review its network of six dairies in the UK and Ireland under its Project Darwin cost-saving initiative launched in February.
Müller Milk and Ingredients, which is the UK’s largest producer of branded and private-label fresh and flavoured milk, cream, butter and dairy ingredients, is conducting a 45-day consultation process for the dairies as it seeks to save GBP100m (US$129m) across its business over two years.
It has also entered a logistics partnership with Müller Group sister company Culina Group, which serves food and drink customers in the UK and Ireland.
Müller said the consultation process over the dairies will look at “future utilisation and capacity requirements”, and added it could not rule out the closure of “a manufacturing site should this be required in order to bring capacity into line with current and future customer requirements”.
Amid declining consumption of fresh milk and a changing retail environment, Müller is conducting Project Darwin to improve margins as well as cut costs, according to a statement from the company.
Patrick Müller, the chief executive of Müller Milk and Ingredients, said: “It is a matter of considerable regret that we must consult on steps which could result in a restructuring of our dairy network and capacity, but we must ensure the sustainability of our business and address potential over-capacity in our network.”
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By GlobalDataBavaria-based Müller is owned by German businessman Theo Müller, who also owns the Culina Group, a chilled distribution and transport specialist.
Culina will take on the distribution for Müller at the start of June. Employees will not be affected.
Ian Smith of Culina will oversee the logistics operations of Müller Milk & Ingredients.
Müller said the partnership will “put together the two major chilled logistics networks in the UK”.
