The UK’s Office of Fair Trading has cleared the acquisition of Starcross Foods by the UK’s Dairy Crest.

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The OFT said it has decided, on the information currently available to it, that a relevant merger situation was not created by the deal.


Dairy Crest announced in May that it was acquiring Starcross for a consideration of £16.9m (US$30.4m). Starcross is a dairy in Foston, Derbyshire opened in May 2002 with current processing capacity of up to 100 million litres of milk per annum.


“The acquisition of Starcross reinforces our commitment to the retail milk business and our customers. Starcross is an advanced modern facility, which will significantly extend our geographical footprint across England and Wales to cover most of the major northern conurbations. This better aligns our business to Morrisons and our other customers’ requirements and will strengthen Dairy Crest’s competitive position,”
Drummond Hall, chief executive of Dairy Crest, said in May.

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