The Arla Foods Group delivered growth across its global operations in 2019, with a slight revenue increase in the UK, driven by its branded lines.
Arla Foods UK’s total revenue increased from €2.27bn to €2.28bn with the business accounting for 22% of the group’s global revenue.
Highlights of its UK performance once again came from its branded portfolio with the foodservice brand Arla Pro delivering 45% revenue growth, Castello delivering 7.8%, Anchor 6.4%, and Arla 6%. The group stated that growth had come predominantly across the cheese, yogurt, butter and spreads categories as well as the chilled milk-based beverages sold through the Starbucks brand license.
Ash Amirahmadi, Arla Foods UK’s Managing Director commented: “2019 marks another year of progress on our branded agenda as we continued to improve our branded sales within butter, spreads, cheese and yogurt categories. As peoples eating habits change, they want different things from dairy, and our brands deliver to this.
“However, we are not immune to the profitability challenges facing the British liquid milk category, which remains a significant part of our business. Performance in this category held back our overall UK results in 2019.”
The Arla Group as a whole saw revenues increase from €10.4bn to €10.5bn, driven mainly by its branded portfolio which achieved a sales volume increase of 5.1%. Pre-tax profit rose 1% to €347m, aided by lower costs.
Global revenues of the Arla brand grew to €3.03bn compared to €2.88m in 2018, driven by a series of launches across its Lactofree and organic ranges, the introduction of new flexitarian options, as well as growth of its Skyr yogurt range in core European markets.
Natalie Knight, CFO of the Arla Foods Group said: “Arla’s global brands continue to be at the heart of our business and in 2019 we have clearly strengthened consumer trust in our brands. We delivered a range of popular dairy products that capitalized on increasing consumer demand for healthy and sustainable food choices, which helped us exceed our expectations for branded growth and outgrow competitors in 2019”.
