Press release -
Müller invests £100m in UK Yogurt & Desserts business
Müller will invest £100m over the next three years to develop, manufacture and market a new generation of branded and private label yogurt and desserts products, made from milk produced by British farmers.
Already the UK’s favourite yogurt and desserts brand picked from supermarket shelves 208 million times each year*, Müller aims to strengthen its leadership in parts of the category where it is already ever-present whilst introducing exciting new branded and private label products where it is currently absent.
The company plans to further grow and innovate brands including category leader Müllerlight, Müller Corner and Müller Rice, and aims to broaden their usage occasions and availability. Müller will also build on its successful licensing agreement with Mondelez to develop its range of Cadbury products, including entry to new segments of the desserts sector.
To accommodate its plans, capacity and capabilities at its three sites in Shropshire will be further upgraded, including doubling the size of the Telford facility by 2020.
Müller will also increase its marketing spend by almost 25% over the next three years, ensuring that its growing portfolio of branded products benefit from sustained and focused support in line with the company’s ambitions.
Plans for its yogurt and desserts business are guided by a category vision which identified a potential £233m of yogurt and desserts category growth by 2020, to be delivered by bringing excitement, innovation and game changing new products to the market.
Already this year, Müller has successfully introduced a range of ‘Big Pot’ yogurts, its first ever whipped fat free Greek style yogurt and its first branded shareable dessert.
It has announced the arrival of Müller White Velvet, injecting new excitement into the plain yogurt sector in the UK, and two Müller Corner SKUs with spoons to target the growing food to go market.
And most recently, the company introduced Müller Rice 5 Grains which includes white rice, barley, spelt, millet and wheat, a perfect on-the-go snack for hungry consumers, whether that’s after the gym or the rush hour commute.
Müller has also extended its successful partnership with British Athletics so that it has branding and activation rights for six major athletics events in 2018 and 2019.
Bergen Merey, Managing Director of Müller Yogurt & Desserts said:
“This unprecedented level of investment will ensure that we can offer an increasing portfolio of great yogurt and desserts products made in Britain with milk from British farmers, which meet the needs of our customers.
“Müller’s approach in the UK within the yogurt and desserts and milk and ingredients sectors, is to grow our capabilities so that we can reduce the UK’s dependence on imported dairy products, and build a vibrant future for the British dairy industry.”
*Kantar Worldpanel 2017 UK Brand Footprint ranking
Topics
Müller UK & Ireland
Müller UK & Ireland is wholly owned by the Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller. It employs around 12,000 people in a business which comprises two distinct business units: Müller Milk & Ingredients and Müller Yogurt & Desserts.
Based in Market Drayton, Müller Yogurt & Desserts is the UK’s leading yogurt manufacturer, responsible for major brands such as Müller Corner, Müllerlight and Müller Rice. It also produces, at production facilities in Minsterley near Shrewsbury, chilled desserts under licence from Mondelez International. Müller Yogurt & Desserts also supplies the UK private label yogurt market from a state of the art yogurt facility in Telford, Shropshire.
Müller Milk & Ingredients aims to be the biggest and best fresh milk and ingredients business with a network of dairies and depots servicing customers throughout the country, producing skimmed, semi-skimmed, whole, flavoured milk and brands including FRijj. It also has the capacity to produce salted, unsalted and lactic butter each year for both the domestic and international markets, and operates the milk&more doorstep delivery service.
The acquisition of Dairy Crest’s dairy operations in December 2015 marked a milestone in Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller’s global growth strategy and in particular its aspiration to place much more emphasis on end to end supply chain innovation, adding value to the UK dairy category.
