Müller Wiseman Dairies Launch Retail Packet Butter

Müller Wiseman Dairies is delighted to confirm the launch of its first 250g packs of butter for the food-service and retail convenience sectors in its own distinctive Müller Wiseman Dairies Black and White packaging.

The 100% British butter is made from British cream fresh every week, and offers customers a quality, traceable product made with milk from Red Tractor approved British farms. Formats available include salted and unsalted, both certified Kosher, with Unsalted also Halal approved.

The move marks an exciting development for the business. Since 2013 Müller Wiseman Dairies' £17 million BRC Grade A accredited state-of-the-art butter processing plant at Müller Dairy in Market Drayton – the largest of its kind in the UK - has been churning out block butter for the food ingredient and food manufacturing sectors.

And Müller Wiseman Dairies Managing Director, Carl Ravenhall says this diversification into packet butter is a continuation of Müller Wiseman Dairies' strategy to add value to every drop of milk:

"Our business generates in excess of 90 million litres of excess cream each year, but investing in our butter offering means we now have much more flexibility and opportunity for innovation and expansion in how we add value to this cream.

"It's a great example of how we can displace imports with products made in Britain, with cream from British farms, and I'm pleased to say that the impact of investment in butter-making is starting to have a significant impact on the dairy trade imbalance which exists in this country. In the last year, our first year in butter making, imports dropped by 10% and exports increased by a staggering 37%![1]

"We hope that by adding another string to our bow with quality, fresh British packet butter for private label and convenience customers, we can further displace these imports and continue to add value to every drop of milk we process.

"We are ambitious for the future of British butter, and see a range of opportunities for us in the pipeline in terms of packs, sizes, formats, both in own label and branded. Watch this space."

Müller Wiseman Dairies 250g packet butter will be available from 21st May 2015* with an RRP of £1.49 for the retail convenience sector.

ENDS

[1] PTF Jan 2015

* subject to availability

For further information, please contact Kirsty McLaren at kirsty.mclaren@muller-wiseman.co.uk

Müller UK & Ireland Group

Müller UK & Ireland Group is wholly owned by the Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller. It has 19 sites nationwide and employs almost 6,000 people across four business units: Müller Dairy, Müller Wiseman Dairies, Müller Minsterley and TM Telford.

Based in Market Drayton, Müller Dairy is the UK's leading yogurt manufacturer, with major brands such as Müller Corner, Müllerlight and Müller Rice.

Müller Wiseman Dairies processes and delivers around 30% of the fresh milk consumed in Britain every day and is famous for its black & white cow-print branding. In December 2013, the business formally opened a major new state of the art butter-making plant in Shropshire, with the capacity to produce up to 45,000 tonnes of salted, unsalted and lactic butter each year.

Müller Minsterley is our facility near Shrewsbury at which chilled desserts including Cadbury Bubbles of Joy, Pots of Joy, Layers of Joy and Twin-pot products are produced under a license from Cadbury.

TM Telford is a state of the art yogurt production facility in Telford, Shropshire which is focused on the development of the company's presence in the UK private label yogurt market.

To make its range of dairy products, the company buys milk from more than 1,200 British dairy farmers, all of whom are Red Tractor Farm Assured.

Müller Wiseman Milk Group Dairy members elect a representative farmer board which works with the company to discuss milk supply issues, including the Group's commitment to maintain a competitive milk price and contractual position.